Benefits cheat told she must repay £1

A Shropshire woman who ran a psychic healing business on the internet while falsely claiming thousands of pounds in benefits has been told to repay just £1 under a confiscation order.

The nominal payment was imposed on 34-year-old Karen Curran after a hearing at Shrewsbury Crown Court under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Curran was told by Judge Peter Barrie that there had been criminal benefit from her activities.

But he made the £1 confiscation order because Curran, of Edgeley Road, Whitchurch, now had no realisable assets.

Miss Laura Hobson, prosecuting, said that financial inquiries estimated that Curran had benefited by about £28,000 from her criminal activities.

Thousands of pounds were earned through Curran's psychic healing website Karen's Healing Hands For You and an eBay auction site.

At court yesterday Curran, who came into court in a wheelchair, said that much of the cash involved was not her money.

She said that the money was linked to an eBay auction site used by her step-father, John Curran.

The court heard claims that theatre and concert tickets and football match tickets, antiques, a car and a narrowboat had been sold by Mr Curran during 2007.

Karen Curran denied that the substantial sums transferred from her PayPal account to Mr Curran's bank account were designed to keep her earnings hidden.

Mr Curran told the hearing that two bank accounts were set up in joint names, but the 'wrong card' had been used when the PayPal account was started.

In August last year Curran admitted falsely claimed £20,000 in housing and cou-ncil tax benefit and income support between August, 2006 and March, 2009.

She was sentenced to eight weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months, and placed on an electronically-tagged, four-month curfew.