Jail after claiming husband died

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A woman who once pretended to be dead to avoid a speeding case has now been jailed for receiving benefit after falsely claiming her husband had died.

Glenda Askew, 48, of Swansea, who got over £11,000 in council tax and housing benefit, was jailed for four months.

She told the council in 2001 he had died, but checks showed they still lived together, city magistrates heard.

Last year she tried to dodge a speeding fine by writing to a court in her daughter's name claiming she was dead.

In that case she was given a suspended prison sentence by a judge at Swansea Crown Court for perverting the course of justice.

Now Askew, from the Clase area of the city, who also goes by her married name of Bootyman, has appeared again before the courts.

She pleaded guilty to the magistrates to 18 offences of failing to notify Swansea Council of a change in her circumstances.

Adrian Jeremiah, prosecuting on behalf of the local authority, told the court that between October 1999 and March 2007 she had failed to declare that her partner Ian Bootyman had been living with her.

Provisional licence

When checks revealed they lived at the same address, Askew repeatedly denied that was the case.

As well as claiming Mr Bootyman was her brother, in December 2001 she wrote to the council to say he was dead.

Magistrates have now jailed her for four months.

In March, she had been given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, at the crown court hearing over the speeding case.

In the earlier case, the crown court had heard that she was recorded driving at 41mph in a 30mph zone at Clasemont Road, in the Morriston area of Swansea.

Askew, who held a provisional licence, had ignored the first letter from the police.

When a court summons arrived, she filled it in the name of her daughter Tracey Roberts, stating that her mother would not be able to attend as she had died in a car crash.

Suspicions were raised and police called at her house.