Hi, I'm new to the forum and find myself here after getting a criminal conviction in December of last year. I'll try to be brief, but I do tend to waffle on lol.

Basically at the end of November 2014 I received a summons to court for Dishonestly failing to declare a change in circumstances, to the city council, resulting in me getting housing and council tax benefit when I was self employed. I'd been interviewed under caution about this 18mths prior and provided them with evidence asked for, but heard nothing from them in 12mths. I had less than 2 weeks to plan for my day in court, whereas they'd had much longer.

The charged stemmed from when I was working as a self employed childminder. I'd signed off JSA and registered as self employed, informed tax credits etc and thought I had told the housing department. I hadn't paid much attention to letters from them, as because my earnings from self employment were so low (£50 a week) I was still entitled to full housing and council tax benefit anyway, so nothing would have changed there anyway.

Originally I was charged with two counts of dishonestly failing to notify, but that meant I had deliberatly set out to deceive and gain money, which I hadn't, and so I wanted to plead not guilty. I was told that there was a chance, although small, that I could be given a prison sentence. I am a single parent of 3, one whom has mental health problems, and so I just couldn't take the risk. I explained my position to my barrister and he suggested that he ask the prosecution if they would accept a guilty plea to just failing to notify, so taking away the dishonestly part, and they agreed, so I plead guilty.
The magistrates at the hearing accepted that I had informed everyone else that I needed to, and that it seemed to be an oversight on my part, but that it was my own fault for not taking more care. I was fined £500 and ordered to pay £120 costs, plus repay all of the benefits i'd received (despite being entitled to them anyway).

Since then life has just stopped, I can't get a job doing anything at all, and my future hopes of going to college and then onto university to study nursing are pretty much over. I am 'lucky' in that at the moment I am not being made to look for work, as I am carer for my daughter, but I want to work.

I feel so angry that what was basically a mistake has ended up with my probably having to spend my life on benefits