A BENEFITS scrounger with 10 children who claims £30,000

A BENEFITS scrounger with 10 children who claims £30,000 a year from the state was condemned by his own daughter yesterday.

Jessica Bateman, 18, said she was ashamed of her “lazy, useless” father and branded him “nothing more than a sperm donor”.

She was angered after hearing how father Gary, 46, and his partner – who is pregnant with her 12th child – were given a £300,000 five-bedroom house by council officials because he complained their old home was too small.

Shopworker Jessica, who is from a previous relationship of her father, has had little contact with him after he walked out on her mother when she was five. But she has learned that he spends up to £60 a time in fast-food restaurants while his council house is kitted out with the latest gadgets and flat-screen TVs.

She said: “I am so ashamed of him. That family seems to be living the life of Riley, when my family works hard to earn a living and can’t afford half of what they can.

“They go out for McDonald’s meals that cost £60 a go and one of his partner’s daughters had a stretch limo ride for her 13th birthday.

“If my dad can ride the motorbike he has in his back garden, then he can sit on a till somewhere. It is just pure laziness. He is just a sperm donor. He is not useful for anything else.”

She added: “His situation makes me so angry. For me to work and pay taxes and for them to live the life they do, it’s sickening.”

Jessica lives with her mother, stepfather and two brothers – also Gary Bateman’s children – and her half-sister in Bristol.

She said she is furious at the lavish lifestyle he leads which is funded by the public purse and angry that council officials had agreed to give her father a five-bedroom detached home in Bristol because his family contines to grow.

Bateman and his partner Joanne Sheppard, 36, rake in £30,000 a year in benefits, including £1,200 a month rent for the house they moved into in January – all paid for by the taxpayer.

Jessica also revealed that Bateman’s partner used to be best friends with her mother Julie, 45, but the pair fell out over her father and have not spoken since. I get so angry with my dad that I try not to speak to him,” said Jessica. He’s an embarrassment and a complete waste of space. He wastes all the cash he gets on flat-screen TVs for the house and other frivolous things.

All the kids have some form of video games console – things I didn’t have when I was younger. My mum can’t stand him and says the only good thing to come out of the marriage was her children. He’s for ever feeling sorry for himself and feels that he is the victim in all this. It’s absolutely sickening.”

Bateman and Joanne Sheppard already have 14 children between them and moved into their new home in January.He has five children with Joanne aged between three and 10, three with Jessica’s mother as well as an alleged illegitimate love child from a previous affair.

Ms Sheppard has six children by two other men and is due to give birth to Bateman’s child at the end of the year. She has not worked for 19 years.

They receive hundreds of pounds in benefits every month by claiming £20.30 for their oldest child and £13.40 for each child up to the age of 18. Mr Bateman also claims £89.80 a week incapacity benefits for a bad back, despite last year being exposed for taking part in off-road motocross biking.

Bateman said yesterday: “People need to keep their noses out of our business. I want to work but I can’t. I haven’t ridden my bike since last year. A McDonald’s meal doesn’t cost that much and the limo was paid for by my step- daughter’s father, not us.”

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of campaign group The TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s disgraceful that this family is being given more than taxpayers earn. Our benefits system needs real reform.”

But Ms Sheppard has said: “I feel we have been victimised We’re having a baby, so what? People ought to just leave me alone. I don’t care what people think of me. It’s just not fair.”

A spokesman for South Gloucestershire Council, which decided to find the family a bigger home, said: “There are statutory obligations on all councils, that in certain circumstances a family will be assessed to see if it requires a level of support and assistance.

“We note that the Government has recently announced proposed changes to the national system.”