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TV glamour model fined for benefit fraud
A glamour model was fined £1,000 today for claiming benefits while working as a television presenter on porn channel Babestation.
Lori Buckby received a carer's allowance for looking after her sick father - despite earning up to 4,000 a month on the adult TV station.
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The 25-year-old from Battersea, south London, was paid 2,406 in benefits, which she has since been forced to give back.
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She pleaded guilty to the fraud last Wednesday and was sentenced today at South Western Magistrates' Court in Battersea.
In addition to the fine, she was ordered to pay 100 towards court costs and a 15 victim surcharge.
Buckby now charges punters to view soft porn photos of herself on her website.
Before starting her job in the adult entertainment industry, the blonde bombshell looked after her father, who suffered a stroke in 2005 at the
age of 50 and became semi-paralysed.
Lawyer Anne Crossfield, defending, said: "This came as a bolt out of the blue. He had looked after her and she had a close relationship with him."
Buckby's claim for a carer's allowance was at first legitimate as she was in Leicester looking after her father, who had run a gym in the city.
But when she got her job her grandmother took over caring for her father.
Buckby, however, wrongly believed she was still entitled to the allowance.
Miss Crossfield said: "This was more a sin of omission rather than commission...Her stepmother had the idea she could claim the allowance.
"Miss Buckby signed the forms. She fully accepts she should have taken the time to read them. She seems to have been overtaken by the busyness of life and by the panic that she felt about her father's condition."
She added: "She's not a person who set out to pull the wool over people's eyes."
The court heard how Buckby divided her time between her work in London and continuing to help look after her father in Leicester.
Miss Crossfield said her client had expressed "full remorse" for her offending and was distressed to find herself in court.
Passing sentence, chairman of the bench Mary Methuen said: "Obviously benefit fraud is something we take very seriously but we do feel this could be dealt with by way of a fine."
The Department for Work and Pensions, who prosecuted the case, welcomed the sentence.
Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform, said: "Benefit thieves are costing the taxpayer almost 1 billion per year.
"This money is intended to help those most in need, not line the pockets of criminals.
"We will continue to tackle this problem at the frontline but also at the root by reforming the benefits system to make it less open to abuse."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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