A FORMER aunt of abducted Dewsbury schoolgirl Shannon Matthews will appear in court accused of benefit fraud.
Amanda Hyett, sister of Shannon’s mother Karen’s ex-partner Craig Meehan, will appear at Leeds Crown Court for a plea and case management hearing.
Hyett, 27, of King Edward Street, Thornhill Lees, Dewsbury, is accused of failing to declare she was living with her husband, Neil, when claiming benefits and keeping money wrongfully paid into her account.
Hyett is charged with six counts of making false statements or representation to obtain benefits, including social security, income support, housing benefits and/or council tax benefits, between September 2003 and August 2006.
She is accused of failing to declare she was living with Mr Hyett and failing to promptly notify the Department of Work and Pensions of a change in her circumstances that would affect her entitlement to income support.
She is also charged with retaining a wrongful credit of £5,181.52 into a Post Office account between July 31 2006 and April 14 2008.
The claims involved in the charges come to a total of £43,050.79.
Hyett became a well-known figure after she became involved in the hunt for Shannon, who sparked a huge search operation when she disappeared in February last year.
She took part in candlelit vigils for the missing girl, gave television interviews and was a frequent visitor to the Matthews’ home next-door to her own former property on Moorside Road, in Dewsbury Moor.
Shannon, then aged nine, was missing for 24 days before she was found in the base of a bed in the home of Hyett and Meehan’s uncle, Michael Donovan.
Her mother and Donovan were convicted last year of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.
They were both jailed for eight years for conspiring to keep Shannon drugged and imprisoned at Donovan’s home in a desperate plan to claim £50,000 in reward money.
