Mother of six 'was paid £1,200 a month benefits to live in Belgravia'

 
P14 Belgravia

An urgent investigation was under way today after a married mother of six was revealed to have claimed vast amounts of public money to live in a £2 million home in Belgravia.

Stephanie Demouh, 38, was having her background checked by Westminster council’s fraud team after reportedly receiving £1,200 a month in benefits to live in the four-bedroom house near Sloane Square for three years.

A recent claim that she is homeless after she was forced to move out of the Belgravia property due to changes in housing benefit is also being checked. The council put her and her family in temporary accommodation in Mill Hill as a result of the claim. A council spokesman said today: “We are investigating potential fraud in the light of information brought to us.”

Investigators will pay particular attention to the allegation that university student Ms Demouh, who was born in Togo but is British, has been married to businessman Djiwonou Djogbessi, 38, since 2001 and has a 50 per cent stake in his online fashion business. The couple do not live together.

Her case came to light when she asked Westminster to rehouse her in Belgravia to cut the travelling time for her four children who continue to attend a Church of England primary school.

Ms Demouh said: “I am a very hard-working person trying to get my children to do well.” Cllr Jonathan Glanz said: “We will not tolerate people ‘playing the system’ to their own benefit.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in