Ex-HMRC worker charged over £75,000 tax fraud

A former team leader dealing with tax credits at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) Dundee office has been charged with defrauding the authority out of more than £75,000.

Leigh Hay will stand trial next month accused of having made false statements in a successful claim for tax credits in the name of herself and her husband over a nine year period at HMRC’s Dundee offices.

The 39-year-old allegedly falsified information about her finances in order to fraudulently claim child and working tax credits totalling £75,071.46 by providing false financial figures.

According to reports in the local Courier newspaper, Ms Hay, faces a benefits fraud charge at Dundee Sheriff Court which alleges that between March 2004 and February 2013 she submitted joint claims for tax credits in the name of herself and husband Kerr.

It is alleged she forged his signature and “provided financial information she knew to be false and failed to declare her true annual income” to obtain the money “by way of fraud.”

An alternative charge of fraud states she obtained child and working tax credits by fraud by providing false financial figures - some claiming her husband did not earn anything for several years - and by forging his signature.

Hay, 39, of St Martin Drive, Dundee, denies a charge under the Tax Credits Act on indictment said to have been committed between March 15, 2004, and February 1, 2013.

She further denies an alternative charge of fraud committed between the same dates.

Defence solicitor John Boyle told Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday: “She maintains her not guilty plea. There is evidence that can be agreed and a joint minute will be entered into before the trial.”

Fiscal depute Kirsten Thomson said the Crown was ready for trial.

Sheriff Alastair Brown said the trial was expected to take place next month.