A benefits cheat and thief who was ordered to pay back just £1 of the £56,679 she pocketed could still be forced to cough up more.
Holbeach mum Maria Pridmore fraudulently took more than £16,000 worth of housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support and stole more than £30,000 from four women.
A court was told last December that Pridmore had no available assets which could be confiscated to pay back her victims. Judge Simon Hirst ruled that in the circumstances a nominal sum of £1 should be paid.
That order enraged many readers of The Voice and South Holland and The Deepings MP John Hayes had sympathy with their anger.
He told The Voice at the time: “I will see if there’s an option to have some system of IOU or retained debt put in place.”
Mr Hayes has now had a response from Justice Secretary Liz Truss, who outlined that Pridmore’s finances could be tracked in order that she is forced to pay back more.
She wrote: “As a government minister I cannot comment on or intervene in individual cases where a judge has made a decision because the judiciary must be free to carry out their duties without interference.
“It may help if I explain that a nominal order is commonly made in cases where the defendant has been found to have benefitted from criminal activity but they have no recoverable or available assets with which to pay the order.
“If at any time in the future assets are identified, the prosecution can apply to the court to increase the order amount up to the value of those assets.”
Mr Hayes was satisfied that there was a way by which Pridmore could be forced to pay more.
He said: “I am pleased that, though not an IOU as such, the Justice Secretary Liz Truss pointed out that if assets are identified in future the courts can recover them.
“So Maria Pridmore hasn’t gotten away with it, and as soon as she’s got the means she can be made to pay up.”
Pridmore, of Angell Lane, admitted seven charges of benefit fraud between August 2010 and March 2013, 19 charges of fraud and theft between January 2013 and May 2016 and stealing her father’s kitchen in April 2015.
She also pleaded guilty to a series of shop thefts and obstructing a police officer.
