The 46-year-old Zoe Shipp from Cottenham walked free from court after she did not inform the authorities that she and her partner were building a property portfolio and claiming benefits at the same time. Shipp bought a property in Bulgaria costing EUR 30 000 and her partner inherited a house in Cambridge costing £ 200 000 which they were renting for the monthly sum of £ 1200. Moreover, she was getting not only taxpayers’s money but housing benefit. The South Cambridgeshire District Council and the Department for Work and Pensions were not informed by her about the properties, a large cash deposit, a housing benefit and council tax benefit. She was later sentenced to six months in prison and was asked to pay £ 3 000 after she admitted she has not notified a change in circumstances on the first day of her trial.
The Court made up a list of changes of circumstances during the fraud within the period from 2006 to 2010. After that, a deposit of £ 25 000 became part of her account in October 2008. Judge Mark Lucraft justified her considering that she was the carer of her partner who had mental health problems and that she admitted her fraud. While being investigated, she turned out to have a bank balance of £ 14 000, a Mercedes worth £ 4 500, horse tack and jewellery valued at more than £ 30 000. The case against her partner Christopher Glover was cancelled due to his mental and medical condition.