Couple with 10 children plan 'sham divorce' to gain bigger council house
by COLIN FERNANDEZ, Daily Mail
21:56pm 9th July 2006
A couple with 10 children who receive nearly £28,000 a year in benefits are set to divorce so they can get a second free house from the state.
Robert Bentley, 47, lives with his second wife Nichola, 27, in a three-bedroom semi-detached home in a smart suburb of Bristol, paid for by the taxpayer.
But as the council has so far refused to pay for a bigger house for his enormous family, he believes the only option is to undergo a sham divorce so that they will be re-housed.
Now the couple have complained that their three-bedroom housing association property in Bradley Stoke, Bristol, is too small. They have begged South Gloucestershire Council for a larger house - and are to split up to get re-housed.
Mr Bentley, who hasn't worked since 2003, said: 'I don't think it's too much to ask. This house is just too small for all of us and the children are always arguing. 'I've got depression and it's too much to cope with. Myself and Nichola are now getting a divorce because we can't manage. 'I've been told the only way to get moved to the top of the list is if I declare myself homeless.'
Mr Bentley, a widower, has eight children from his first marriage - Sarah, 23, Jodie and Rebecca, 19, Nicholas, 17, Ross, 15, David, 12, Cassandra, 10, and Maddison, five. He married his new wife Nichola, 29 , in November 2005 and moved into her home with his five youngest children and her two daughters, Charlotte, six, and Katie, three.
She then had twins - Jessika and Chloe, now eight weeks old - and his daughter Rebecca has recently had a baby girl, Tamsin.
Their home in Bradley Stoke has two estate cars in the drive.
In their living room they have a wide screen TV, dvd player and video, freeview box and a £280 X-box game console. The couple's wedding in 2005 was partly funded by a £600 loan from the Benefit Agency.
Mr Bentley said: ''We all moved in and at first it was ok. Myself and Nichola had a bedroom, the two lads shared a bedroom and the five girls shared a room. 'But then it got worse and worse. The lads rowed - one of the doors is still off the hinges from when they were fighting each other. 'It just became unbearable. I couldn't cope because of my depression. 'Then Nichola had twins and my daughter Rebecca had a baby girl so the house got even busier.' After deciding to divorce unemployed Nichola, he contacted London-based Warden Housing Association - which runs properties in the area - for a new home. But he has been told by them that the council decides who gets the houses - and he is not top of the list. 'It's just terrible,' he said. 'I'm sleeping on the sofa, the kid's are cramped. I just want a new house so I can get on with life and maybe get a job. 'The council have offered me and the kids accommodation in a bed and breakfast but my psychiatrist thinks I might harm myself if I live there. 'And I've been told I'll only get a house if I declare myself homeless.' So Mr Bentley said he was hoping to move out along with his five children into a nearby house, while his wife remained where she was with the twins and her daughters.
'We'd be living on two sites, but I can't see another option.'
Yesterday (Thurs) a spokeswoman for South Gloucestershire Council - in charge of the Bradley Stoke area - said: 'Mr Bentley is on the housing register. 'However, there is a shortage of five-bed properties in the district and we have advised him that it may be some time before his request is met. 'We have been working with him on other suggested options including presenting himself and his children as homeless and renting privately.''
ARTICLE 2
A husband today blamed his local council for the breakdown of his marriage after he and his wife were forced to live in a three-bedroom house - with ten children.
Unemployed Robert Bentley, 47, claims his dream of living together as one big happy family in their modest home in Bradley Stoke, Bristol quickly turned into a nightmare.
But he and his wife Nichola, 29, could be stuck with each other in the "madhouse" indefinitely after the council said it could not accommodate them in separate houses.
His only option could be to declare himself and his family homeless - something he has not ruled out.
The father of ten, who already had eight children from his previous marriage, met his second wife on the internet and married her 12 months ago.
He moved in to Nichola's housing association home with five of his clan - Rebecca, 19, Ross, 15, David, 12, Cassandra, 10 and Maddison, five.
Nichola and her two daughters, Charlotte, six, and Katie, three, initially welcomed the new arrivals into their cosy but increasingly cramped home.
But then ten weeks ago, Rebecca gave birth to Tasmin, and Nichola gave birth to twins, Jessika and Chloe, two weeks later.
The strain proved simply too much for the couple after their bickering children divided along bloodlines and the house descended into a "war zone".
"It's very difficult for us living in the same house," Mr Bentley said.
"I'm currently on the sofa downstairs, my wife and the baby are in one bedroom, my two sons are in another and there's six girls in another room. My daughter is in one bed with the baby, but Maddison has to sleep on the floor.
"There's arguing all the time and there's hardly any room for them to play.
"We can't get any privacy and nor can my daughter with her baby. So we've split up.
"The trouble at the moment is we can't sit down and talk things through because we always get interrupted."
He said he was hoping to move out along with his five children into a nearby house, while his wife remained where she was with the twins and her daughters.
No house big enough
But South Gloucestershire Council have kicked any trial separation into touch after telling the couple they did not have a house big enough to accommodate him and his children.
Mr Bentley, who gave up working as a delivery driver in 1993, suffers from depression and has only worked for 18 months since then.
He and Nichola, who is also unemployed, live off benefits, but both claim they already have "full-time jobs".
The couple face three school runs and four bedtime reading shifts every day, along with industrial size quantities of laundry, cleaning and cooking.
But Mr Bentley, whose first wife died in 2003, insisted today that he had no regrets about having such a large family.
"I love children. I always have. When I met Nichola she knew all my past and what it involved. She knew I was depressed and my children had problems.
"But I think it proved too much for her in such a small house. Things could have been different if the council had something bigger, like a four or five-bedroom house."
The couple's home is run by Warden Housing Association, which only provides accommodation to families and individuals nominated by the council.
A council spokeswoman said: "Mr Bentley is on the housing register, however, there is a shortage of five bed properties in South Gloucestershire and we have advised him that it may be some time before his request is met.
"We have been working with him on other suggested options including presenting himself and his children as homeless and renting privately."
Father-of-ten blames council house for marriage breakdown
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