SHAMELESS SCROUNGER

ABOVE: Mum is spending benefit money on fruit machines

BRITAIN’s most shameless mum is demanding more in benefits – despite spending hundreds of pounds a week on fruit machines.

Sponger Julie Potten, 38, gets £92- a-week incapacity benefit because she suffers from “mood swings”.

But she spends much of the cash – and her husband’s wages – on a slot machine habit costing £400 a month.

And she says she deserves more cash so she can afford to cheer herself up.

The brazen freeloader is the real-life female equivalent of gormless Frank Gallagher in the Channel 4 show Shameless.

She has a 42inch TV in her council flat but says the Government should pay for her to go to the cinema and bowling to cheer her up.

She is also demanding shopping vouchers for vegetables, which she claims are too expensive.

And in yet another request, she says the Government should write off her loan debts because “life’s a struggle”.

She said: “Living on the breadline is difficult. Gambling is the only thing I do to socialise because I can’t afford anything else. I get bored and depressed stuck at home.

“The Government should give me cinema and bowling tokens to keep me out of the arcades and cheer me up.”

Julie, from Pembury in Kent, had two children with two different men before marrying husband Ian, 53.

Both children live with their fathers. Julie claims she plays fruit machines because she misses her children so much.

But she admits she hasn’t even seen her youngest son since he was aged one and she complains about having to wash her eldest son’s PE kit.

She said: “I pay maintenance so I don’t like it when I’m asked to wash his PE kit and buy ingredients for his school cooking classes. His dad should sort that out.” Of her youngest son she said: “I want to see my son on my terms, not my ex’s or a judge’s.

“I want to say where and when. But I can’t, so I haven’t seen my baby for seven years. It’s heartbreaking.”

Julie has racked up a £20,000 debt in bank loans and council rent and tax arrears.

But the financial strife has not stopped her gambling – a habit she blames on husband Ian who she says “encourages” her.

She said: “I can’t get a full-time job because I’d lose my benefits. Debt makes me stressed and I get sick a lot because I go without food to buy Ian fags, otherwise he gets crabby.

“I’d like to go to the cinema and bowling like other families and eat vegetables but they’re luxuries for people like me. The Government doesn’t care about my problems. I feel let down.”

One local who knows the family told the Daily Star Sunday: “It’s ridiculous. She is shameless.”

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Posted: Mon 22 March 2010, 19:38:35 , by scattyjess Shameless scrounger the moth to the fruity “ Julie Potten, The shameless Scrounger. Give her a few more days and she?ll be sueing the machine company for repetitive stain injuries on her fingers and eyes. Here is an orange advert for you, 2 for 1 on cinema tickets can?t think of a friend to take, let?s just hope her laugh isn?t as gormless as her face. Between her and her husband Ian that 1 ticket would cost £6 maybe 7, half it £3.50, that?s how much she spends on 4 tabs on the fruity its self on that tiny flashing button. This stupid moth in civilization should fly into the blue light or reality. Julie Lazy Potten, thinks she is the only person that the system has failed on. The truth of the matter is that it has, as it shouldn?t be giving her window to benefits, when there are people out there, who have fought for this country, children in bad homes and those who can?t afford bread let alone vegetables. Wake up and smell the Easter daffodils, the government hasn?t let you down. You have let the country down, your children down and yourself down. Spending time with your children is socialising. If you really cared they would be living with you or you would take every chance you had to see them, because the last time I checked fruit machines don?t talk to you. Unless the ones I have at work are incredibly horribly rude, then I apologise. Ill tell you what Julie, thinking of you and writing this letter has stressed me out so much. That I am waiting for the government to give me free paintball tokens. ” ( Inappropriate Comment? Report This! )

	Posted: Sun 21 March 2010, 15:22:37 , by samno1 Re: Shameless scrounger “ now thisis one load of trash the scum of the earth and it wants more cash to play the fruit machines it should be flushed down the sewer but that would be cruelty to the rats note i say it not her or she as it is niether just a load of scum to be washed away with asid please ” ( Inappropriate Comment? Report This! )

	Posted: Sun 21 March 2010, 12:39:08 , by JohnnyB Re: Shameless scrounger “ Constipation? She's already full of ****. ” ( Inappropriate Comment? Report This! )

Posted: Sun 21 March 2010, 11:34:28 , by Greg_Ingram Re: Shameless scrounger “ Why hasn't the government realised that the rising level of unemployment benefits is due to the system of easy access. Jury Team http://www.juryteam.org/ proposes to reform the benefit system, to introduce a total cap on payments to ensure people have an incentive to work compared to staying on the benefit system http://www.juryteam.org/p04-limiting-benefits.php. This will reduce benefit abuse; claimants such as Julie Potten are examples of belligerent exploitation of honest hard working tax payers. ” ( Inappropriate Comment? Report This! )

Posted: Sun 21 March 2010, 00:40:38 , by siesta2 Re: Shameless scrounger “ Benifits for mood swings what next constipation ? ” ( Inappropriate Comment? Report This! )

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