Neighbours slam ‘pot-smoking’ couple who started GoFundMe to fund Christmas

A couple who were given thousands when they pleaded with the public to pay for their family’s Christmas have been blasted by angry neighbours.

Ryan Rodgers, 26, from Liverpool, launched a GoFundMe after he and fiancée Jenny Grimes, 25, were forced to use food banks for their seven kids when they had their benefits capped.

Kindhearted strangers donated £3,500 in just four days before Shelly Grattan, 46, mother of Miss Grimes, instigated a scathing attack on her son-in-law.

Speaking to MailOnline, she named Mr Rodgers a ‘feckless liar’, saying the public should stop giving to him as he ‘has never done a day’s work in his life’.

Miss Grimes’ sister added that ‘the public should not fall for his sob story’.

Now, locals who lived near them in the Kirkby area for two years have hit out as well, naming the pair the neighbours from hell.

One claimed Mr Rodgers smoked pot ‘all day long’ and that the two had been given handouts all their lives.

Retired school attendance officer Joan Bennett, who lives two doors down from the family, said she ‘can’t think of anyone more unsuitable to be asking for money’.

She alleges they used to have a lucrative sideline selling second-hand goods, saying there were always vans pulling up carrying chairs, couches and widescreen TVs.

Ms Bennett told MailOnline that the smell of pot would be present ‘first thing in the morning’, adding: ‘In the summer I’d be hanging out my washing and screaming, “Will you stop smoking that stuff and get a bloody job?”‘

Her husband Mr Bennett, 68, said: ‘They were terrible neighbours. I went up to him once and said, ‘You should be ashamed of yourself.’

‘He just puffed out his chest and said, ‘I’ve got five kids.’ It was as if he saw that as something to brag about.

‘The fella has never worked a day in his life.’

Mr Rodgers said in his GoFundMe appeal that the family were trying to get back on their feet after becoming homeless.

He added that their benefits had been capped, meaning they went from getting £2,100 a month, to just £699.50 in Universal Credit after their rent is deducted.

They were ‘ashamed’ to launch a public appeal for money but said they had no other choice for their children, who are aged between nine months and seven years old.

On the fundraising page they wrote: ‘We are a young couple with seven children trying to get back on our feet after becoming homeless having to start all over again from fresh.

‘We have been benefit capped to the bare minimum and we are really struggling to get by.

‘Our situation is being much more a struggle with Christmas being only a few weeks away.’

Last night, Mr Rodgers admitted he used to sell second-hand furniture and TV sets from his former home, saying it ‘wasn’t a big earner, but it made enough to put food on the table’.

He denied ever using cannabis or any other drugs, saying people who had made these claims were lying.

The father-of-seven also said he has given £1,500 of funds so far raised to charity, only keeping £850 for himself, his wife and children.

He declined to specify which charity or charities he had donated to.

Miss Grimes has also rejected claims that she and her partner have ever taken drugs, saying any suggestions like this were ‘ridiculous’.

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She added that Mr Rodgers, a former waiter, worked until he suffered a cancer scare last year.

She told MailOnline: ‘I’ve not touched a drug in my life and I wouldn’t let anything like that anywhere near my kids.

‘I think drugs are disgusting. We are good parents who are on benefits, receiving the most minimal amount of money from the government, we can’t survive on just this.’