A GRANDMOTHER who fraudently claimed benefits while having £447,583 in the bank has been ordered to pay back £16,933.

Gail Doran, 54, of Sadlers Park caravan site, London Road, Bowers Gifford, will not have to part with any of the £447,583, despite providing no evidence where it came from or tax being paid on it.

Instead, she will have to pay the £16,933 she falsely claimed in housing and council tax benefits over a six-year period.

Traveller Mrs Doran, who has 27 grandchildren, who used seven Barclays bank accounts, told a confiscation hearing at Southend Crown Court she acted as "banker" for her eight children.

She said: "My three eldest sons sorted out what went in and out.

"It was for landscape work and selling horses.

"They could sell a horse for anything from £20,000 to £40,000. The money was all earned legitimate."

Only two accounts were open at any one time.

The Department of Work and Pensions applied under the Proceeds of Crime Act to confiscate benefits, the £447,583 and her home at Sadlers Park.

She said her sons paid £40,000 cash for the land at auction in 2002, before developing a small caravan park, which got planning permission in 2005.

It was registered in her name.

Mrs Doran said her children deposited earnings into her accounts, but no money was hers.

Ross Cifonelli, prosecuting, said: "You have provided no evidence to corroborate your version of events.

"I suggest on one level you may be making this up.

"If I was really generous, at its lowest level, it was tax fraud. Something suspicious was going on and you knew it."

He argued judge Hubert Dunn should confiscate at least 40 per cent of the money to claw back unpaid tax.

But Chris Gillespie,defending, argued such an order would be "guesswork".

He said an indepth investigation into tax evasion would instead be needed.

Mr Dunn ruled that Mrs Doran pay back benefits payments.

He said there was no evidence the money was the proceeds of crimes such as burglary, robbery or drug dealing.

He said: "There is a strong suggestion of tax fraud, but a difficulty arises.

"She says the money was not hers. The difficulty is whose fraud it was.

"This creates a serious risk of injustice."

After the hearing the department said it was considering launching a tax evasion probe.

Property Mogul

A MEMBER of Gail Doran's family became a property mogul just months after being allowed to stay at Sadlers Park.

Son James Doran began letting a house in Leyland Close, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, which was bought for £270,000 cash in February 2006, through a property agent.

The Echo has learned the landlord earned £645 a month in rent from a tenant on housing benefit from early 2006.

The semi-detached house is registered to Kathleen O'Connor. Gail Doran bought Sadlers Park for £40,000 in January 2002, using a caravan pitch in Biggin Lane, Chadwell St Mary, as a care of address.

The green belt site was developed illegally, but the family got permission to stay in mid-2005.

They claimed during legal disputes with Basildon Council they had nowhere else to go, could not live in houses and did not have the cash to buy a legitimate traveller site, including one for sale at the A127 at Basildon, for £150,000.