London, Nov 19 (IANS) The mother of Scarlett Keeling, the British teenager who was murdered in Goa last year, has been charged with a 50,000-pound benefit fraud, according to a newspaper report Thursday.
Fiona MacKeown is accused of deceiving the government to obtain 51,401 pounds in state-funded benefits that Britons on low income are entitled to.

The Daily Mail said the charge relates to a three-year period between February 2005 and March 2008.

But MacKeown said she plans to dispute some of the charges and that she needed income support payments to run the household and pay for food, gas and other necessities for her family.

“My solicitor is confident the amount I am accused of falsely claiming can be reduced. I didn’t realise when I went to India that I had to declare I was going away,” said the 44-year-old, whom the paper described as a dog breeder.

It quoted a source in the relevant government department as saying: “The allegation is that she basically claimed benefits but didn’t declare income.”

In February last year, the semi-naked body of MacKeown’s 15-year-old daughter Scarlett was found on Anjuna beach in Goa, prompting a feisty campaign by the mother to find and punish the guilty.

In September this year, the CBI filed charges against two accused, Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho.

Both are on bail.