Social Security benefit cheat Denise Hanbury stated to an English Court that she had bought overseas property in Bulgaria, Egypt and Turkey in a bid to get off herself off benefits.
Denise Hanbury, Chelmsford Crown Court she had remortgaged her home and spent £64,000 on overseas investment property
Last month, the 49-year-old admitted one offence of failing promptly to declare she had savings over the £16,000 limit, knowing it would affect her entitlement to income support between November 27, 2006, and December 18, 2007.
Daniel Howell, defending, said Hanbury wanted to take advantage of the property market in 2006, and intended to buy property abroad to earn rent to get herself off benefits. Mr Howell said Hanbury, who was of good character, suffered from chronic fatigue and could only work part-time
Recorder John Akast gave her a conditional discharge for two years, saying the offence was committed under exceptional circumstances.
He told the mum-of-four: “Your explanation to manage them in some way, which would in years to come make you free of dependency on the state is a laudable aim, but at the time you were dependent on the state.”
Meanwhile the overseas property industry took comfort from a survey undertaken by the Property Investor Show. It revealed that confidence among property investors buying property abroad and in the UK has improved dramatically in the past three months.
The research shows that confidence is up by 43%, with some 32% of those people questioned saying that more positive media reports was the main cause for improved market sentiment, while 20.7% put it down to greater access to finance.
