Rood Eye
Friday 19th July 2019 9:18pm [Edited]
4,103 posts
Quote: Briosaid @ 19th July 2019, 9:52 PM
More to the point, how did she do it?
It's funny you should ask that, Brio - as the woman is originally from Glasgow!
Basically, she did it by failing to disclose her father's death and by faking a number of illnesses.
When her father died, she continued to claim benefits (including expensive round-the-clock care payments) on his behalf for 12 years - even going so far as to enlist the help of an impostor to impersonate her father when benefits inspectors visited the house. Accordingly, she netted £600,000 over 12 years.
She also claimed falsely to be suffering from arthritis, asthma and dementia: that netted her another £125,000.
Her son also claimed £27,000 in carer's allowances for looking after her.
She also enlisted the help of her other son's girlfriend to make a false claim for care allowance that netted £3700.
After her arrest, she spent a month at a psychiatric hospital where five psychiatrists agreed there was absolutely nothing wrong with her.
However, she has since been diagnosed with "factitious illness disorder" - which basically means that she invents illnesses.
She turned up at court in a wheelchair and appeared disoriented but the judge was having absolutely none of it and told her she would go to prison.
However, I won't believe it until she's actually sentenced.