A COUPLE have been given suspended prison sentences after an investigation uncovered a benefit and mortgage fraud.
Philomena Donaghy, aged 25, fraudulently received more than £11,000 in benefit payments after claiming to be single and living alone at Wharfside Apartments in Bury, from December 2009.
She made claims for income support and housing benefit because she said she had no means of financial support. However, investigators found she was living at the property with her partner Mark Dunne, aged 26, who was working. Donaghy and Dunne had submitted a false mortgage application for £48,000.
Donaghy was given a six-week custodial sentence for the benefit and mortgage frauds, suspended for 12 months. Dunne was sentenced for his part in the mortgage fraud to a three-month suspended sentence. The couple, now of Eldon Street, had pleaded guilty.
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