{"id":73400,"date":"2026-06-30T11:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/73400\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T11:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:50:20","slug":"derby-benefits-cheat-illegally-claimed-thousands-while-living-in-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/73400\/","title":{"rendered":"Derby benefits cheat illegally claimed thousands while living in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dawna Bird advertised on Facebook as a child minder\"Photo<\/p>\n

Benefits cheat Dawna Bird leaving Derby Crown Court (Image: Reach PLC)<\/p>\n

This married benefits cheat from Derby<\/a> illegally claimed more than \u00a314,000 she was not entitled to because she was living in Greece.<\/p>\n

Derby Crown Court<\/a> was told how Dawna Bird was supposed to tell the Department of Work and Pensions when she was out of the country for more than 28 days as this affected her claim for Personal Independence Payments (PIP).<\/p>\n

But between 2019 and 2023 she spent \u201cmore than 1,000 days\u201d living abroad<\/a> and even advertised on Facebook that she was available to hire as a child minder while there.<\/p>\n

Her husband Harry Bird has already been dealt with by the courts, prosecutor Stefan Fox said, claiming around \u00a370,000 in extra payments and receiving a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years.<\/p>\n

Now, on what was supposed to be the first day of her trial, the 66-year-old, of Alvaston,<\/a> has also admitted her crime.<\/p>\n

Handing her a five-month prison term, suspended for a year, Judge Shaun Smith KC said:<\/a> \u201cThe evidence was pretty overwhelming and in the end you have seen sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are now paying the money back in smaller amounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Fox said Bird first claimed PIP in February 2019.<\/p>\n

The benefit can help with extra living costs if applicants have both a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability and difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around because of their condition.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor said it was successful and she was sent information saying if she left the country she needed to tell the DWP.<\/p>\n

But she failed to do so when, between then and 2023, she went to live some of the year in Greece.<\/p>\n

Mr Fox said: “Evidence came to light that she was living outside the UK and an investigation began.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were periods when she flew to and from Greece and in total was more than 1,000 days during which she was obligated to tell the DWP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are screen shots from Facebook accounts where she was saying she was planning to move aboard and Facebook posts that she was in Greece and advertising as a child minder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant returned to the UK in August 2023 and was invited to participate in a voluntary interview where it was put to her she had been out of the UK for extensive periods of time but she denied that she was living abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bird, of Branksome Avenue, pleaded guilty to fraud and has previous convictions including theft and handling stolen goods dating back to the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Dan Scothern, her barrister, said: \u201cThe claim was initially legitimate and Mrs Bird is now having the funds removed at source to repay the sum.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dawna Bird advertised on Facebook as a child minder Benefits cheat Dawna Bird leaving Derby Crown Court (Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[2094,141,61,393,5,6],"class_list":["post-73400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-alvaston","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-facebook","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116838912726221698","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}