59-year-old Borderer put on curfew after admitting £18,500 benefit fraud
A woman convicted of an £18,500 benefit fraud has been put on a night-time home curfew for the next 10 months.
Carole Lindsay, 59, has been ordered to stay in her home at Lintlaw Farm Cottages, near Auchencrow, between the hours of 7pm and 7am.
She pleaded guilty at Jedburgh Sheriff Court to failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions about a change in her circumstances, namely that her mobility had improved and she was self-employed, while still getting personal independence payments.
That offence was committed at her home and also at Galashiels jobcentre between October 2014 and March 2018.
Sheriff Peter Paterson told the first offender that the offence was above the threshold for custody and merited imprisonment, but, because of the Scottish Government’s policy of presumption against short-term jail sentences, he imposed a restriction-of-liberty order instead.