Most families who are due to lose their child benefit are worrying about how they’ll make ends meet without it. But for Kelly Marshall, who has five children by four different fathers, the handout has never been about paying for nappies, food and other everyday expenses. She saved her benefit money to help pay for breast enhancement.

And as many parents envisage tightening their belts after the Tories announced plans to cut the benefit for higher-rate taxpayers, she plans to save more of hers for liposuction and a tummy tuck.
Miss Marshall, who has never worked, rakes in almost £29,000 a year from benefits – and last year spent £4,500 to go from a 34A to a 34DD.
She explained: ‘I have wanted a boob job since I was a teen. But it wasn’t until I had five children that I could afford it – with all the extra benefits I get. Now I hope to have liposuction, a tummy tuck and regular Botox.
‘I thought having children would make my boobs bigger, but that never happened so I decided to do something about them.
‘I saved money from my benefits for four months to cover half the cost and put the rest on a credit card, which I pay back with my benefits.
‘I know most people will think it is wrong I am spending taxpayers’ money on my looks. But I deserve it because I am a good mum. Having children has taken its toll on my body. All mums should be able to have cosmetic surgery.

‘I don’t care that it is at the taxpayers’ cost,’ she told Closer magazine. ‘I am just proud of my looks and family – and it’s my decision what the money is spent on.’
Miss Marshall, 32, receives monthly payments of £870 in housing benefit, £975 in child tax credit, and £303 in child benefit, giving her an income equivalent to a pre-tax salary of £39,000.
On Monday, George Osborne announced plans to prevent families on benefits receiving more than £26,000 a year.
The Chancellor said the aim was to put a cap on the maximum amount it is possible for any one person to claim and linked the figure to the average working income.
Critics pointed out, however, that any working household would need to earn at least £35,000 to take home £26,000.
Miss Marshall has no plans to start working. She once went to a job centre, but quickly realised she would be financially much better off if she did not work.
‘What’s the point? My mum worked all her life and she paid taxes so I feel I am getting what I deserve,’ she said. ‘Some people might think I am a scrounger.

‘But I don’t think me or my children should miss out on nice things just because I have never worked.’ Miss Marshall’s children, aged between three and 16, don’t appear to miss out.
They all have the latest computers and gadgets, and the family have been on two holidays abroad this year.

They have a PlayStation3, a Wii and an Xbox 360 and each of the children has an additional games console to themselves.

However, Miss Marshall said: ‘They only have three laptops between them so I might have to buy another one soon because they don’t like sharing.’
She also wants them to experience the benefits of travel.
‘I always take the kids abroad,’ she said. ‘We have been to Tenerife and Cyprus, and this year we have been to Magaluf twice.
‘Each holiday costs about £2,000, but it’s good to get away, and the kids and I deserve it.’
Back home at the detached house that she shares with Lewis, 16, twins Mia and Kallie, 11, Nio, ten, and three-year-old Lenni, Miss Marshall has furnished each of the four bedrooms with a flat-screen TV and keeps a separate wardrobe just for her jeans.
She also says she has a penchant for designer labels, which is shared by her daughters, who ‘love Armani’.

However, although Miss Marshall receives more than many hard-working families she admits that she has also run up £10,000 of debt.

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GANGS of laser yobs targeting Lothian drivers are being hunted by police after a spate of incidents which officers warn could have potentially fatal consequences.

Police say teenagers are using the high-powered laser pens and keyrings to harass motorists as they drive at night.

The youths have been reported by concerned motorists at least three times in the last ten days after being spotted shining the lasers into passing vehicles.

The devices, which often cost less than £10 and focus a beam of light over several miles, can temporarily blind drivers and could cause them to crash, officers have warned.

The incidents have all taken place around the Dalkeith area but police believe several different groups of youngsters are behind the attacks.

A plane coming into land at Edinburgh Airport has also been targeted.

The pilot of an Air France flight approaching the airport on September 22 reported a green laser being shone into the cockpit, possibly from the Dalkeith schools campus.

Dalkeith Community Sergeant Scott Meechan said: “Incidents involving laser pens and laser lights tend to increase following the school holiday period with young people bringing them back from abroad where they are readily available.

“These items are not toys, and used wrongly could have potentially fatal consequences.

“The reckless or dangerous use of a laser light will not be tolerated and anyone found to be using one in such a manner will be robustly dealt with.”

The first of the most recent incidents came in Musselburgh Road in Dalkeith on September 21 when youths were reported for aiming lasers at passing cars.

The following day, the Air France flight was targeted while in the town’s Salter’s Road, motorists were also hit again.

On the next evening, a gang of youths was seen shining the lasers at more cars, with one woman motorist who contacted police saying she had felt “disorientated” after being struck by the green beam.

Four youths turned their attention to houses in Dalkeith’s Cowden Park on Monday with each shining lasers inside, while residents in Woodburn Park said they had been targeted by “several” lasers over a period of three days.

Last year, it was revealed that ten planes coming in to land at Edinburgh Airport were shot at with lasers in the space of eight months from locations including Joppa, Leith and Little France.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said: “These devices are incredibly dangerous but unfortunately we’re seeing a sharp increase in their use in both the UK and throughout the world.

“We’re doing all we can to combat them, including helping to enact a new law which makes shining a laser at an aircraft a specific criminal offence.

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A desperate homeowner who injured a group of thugs with a catapult as they terrorised his neighbourhood has won backing from a judge who threw out the teenagers’ claims for damages.

Bruce Harwood, 38, and his neighbours in a converted Georgian townhouse were subjected to a two-year reign of terror by 20 youths who urinated on the front door, threw eggs at the windows and regularly caused disturbances into the early hours.

The electrician finally snapped when the louts followed a car through the electronic gates protecting the Grade II listed building in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire.

As the female driver ran into the building fearing for her safety, electrician Mr Harwood grabbed a catapult he needs for his business and fired a several ‘warning volleys’ of small ball bearings at them.

Three of the louts were accidentally hit, leaving them with minor injuries to their legs and groins, and he was arrested by police.

He has now admitted causing actual bodily harm and been ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work.

But in a common sense victory for victims of anti-social behaviour, the judge threw out the hoodie-wearing yobs’ claims for £1,200 compensation each, saying they ‘brought this very much upon themselves’.

Sitting at Cambridge Crown Court, Judge Gareth Hawkesworth said: ‘In this incident, it is entirely clear to me that you and the other residents were subjected to a lot of incidents of anti-social behaviour that were deliberate provocations by local youths.

‘On this occasion you and other residents had suffered from a number of disturbances that amounted to deliberate provocation.

‘You responded by taking a catapult and firing it. Such action easily could have caused serious harm. Your fault was in not notifying police.

‘But I think it wholly inappropriate that I should make a compensation order given that they brought this very much upon themselves.’

The ruling came days after Britain’s most senior police officer said forces had lost their ‘psychological contract’ with the public to keep the streets clear of anti-social behaviour.

Scotland Yard chief Sir Paul Stephenson admitted beat patrols were being neglected as officers spent increasing amounts of time behind desks.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Harwood, who has moved out of his £520-a-month penthouse flat and now lives with his fiancee in Northamptonshire, said: ‘I was just trying to scare them away and I didn’t think I had hit them. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt anyone.

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Yobs kicked open uncollected bin bags in a Sedgley street leaving rotting rubbish strewn across the road and near to homes.
Residents in part of Bath Street woke up to find the mess on Saturday morning.

And they were left “absolutely disgusted” after being told by Dudley Council the mess would not be cleaned up until today.

They now fear rats and other vermin may be attracted by bags left uncollected on the street which have been torn open by yobs.

Bin bags filled with rubbish have been left on streets around the borough after changes to refuse collection which permits only three bags to be collected per home.

But the scheme has been criticised as deeply flawed as most residents traditionally pile up their bags in one part of a street rather than leave them outside their homes. And some of these are not being taken as binmen cannot be sure if they are from a single property and will not risk breaking the rules, it is claimed.

Robert Gibbons, aged 40, from Bath Street, said: “All of the rubbish has been left in the road right outside my house. I phoned the council but was told it would not be cleaned up until Monday.

“It is disgusting. With the bin bags left like this and the rubbish in the road we are really concerned about it attracting rats.

“People traditionally leave their bags piled up in this part of the street to make it easier for the binmen to collect them. But because of this new rule this is not being done which is why these bags were there for people to kick around.

“I told the council about the problem and they just said I should tell my neighbours to leave the bags outside their own homes.

“But why should I have to do this? It is not my responsibility to do so.

“I think people will soon start to question what they are actually paying their taxes for.”

Dozens of bags were left behind on the Priory and Kates Hill estates last week as the new restriction on bags was enforced.

Labour environment spokesman Zafar Islam says if “teething problems” persist the council should review its decision.

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