12th kid for jobless scroungers

AN idle benefit scrounger whose partner is having her 12th child bragged yesterday: "We have enough for a football team."

Jobless Gary Bateman and Joanne Sheppard have even been given a free five-bedroom house to raise their brood in.

Soon after moving into the new property mum-of-11 Joanne, 36, was pregnant again. She is to give birth at the end of the year.

The ё1,200-a-month rent on their imposing detached home comes out of more than ё30,000 a year they claim from the State.

Fiona McEvoy, of the TaxPayers` Alliance, said: "It`s disgraceful that this family is being given more than taxpayers earn. Our benefits system needs real reform."

But Bateman, 46, whined: "People should mind their own business. We`re not doing anyone any harm.

"It`s a nice place. We outgrew the last house. It was a bit of a nightmare being on top of each other."

He joked of Joanne`s pregnancy: "It was an accident. Something happened that wasn`t supposed to. We`ve enough for a football team."

The Sun told last year how shameless Bateman claimed for a bad back - despite taking part in the off-road biking sport of motocross. Nearly 18 months later he still has no job and rakes in a weekly ё89.80 long-term incapacity payout, while driving his family around in a van.

Joanne first got pregnant at 17 and has not worked since. She has children by three men. Her offspring with Bateman range from a son of 17 to a baby of eight months.

Child benefit alone brings in hundreds of pounds a month.

They can claim ё20.30 a week for the oldest child at home and ё13.40 for others up to the age of 18.

They could also be eligible for a Guardian`s Allowance of ё14.30 a week per child.

Until January the couple were in a three-bed council house in Yate, near Bristol.

But South Gloucestershire District Council has moved them to a spacious privately-rented home in suburban Staple Hill.

Bateman, who has also fathered children with other women, admits he could not remember when he last had a job.

He said last year of his biking hobby: "I have to keep myself occupied."

The grasping pair first made news in 2006, boasting of a ё1,500 Christmas spending spree on taxpayers.

The Sun has been campaigning for the benefits system to be tightened.

Last month, we told how dad-of-seven Abdi Nur got ё2,000 a month to live in a ё2.1million West London home.

sections: Celebrities