The Catch-up: Britain's biggest ever benefits fraud jailed

What happened?

Britain’s biggest ever benefits fraud, who faked having dementia and hid her father’s death for 12 years, has been jailed. Ethel McGill, 68, was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison after pocketing £750,000 in false claims. Her son Chris McGill, 28, and her other son’s former partner, Hannah Bazley, 25, were found guilty of supporting McGill by claiming a carer’s allowance for conditions she did not have.

How did she carry out the deception?

McGill covered up her father’s death for 12 years from 2004 in order to receive his pension and benefits. She even asked a friend to pose as her dead father and told social workers trying to check on him not to speak to her father as he could be aggressive.

In 2005, she made a request to Liverpool Housing Trust for a bigger property in Runcorn, Cheshire, saying her family needed to live together to provide around-the-clock care for Robert Dennison, who was already dead.

She also pretended to have dementia and mobility problems for more than 20 years in order to falsely claim disability allowance and other benefits. McGill registered at two doctors surgeries close to her home and would visit one repeatedly to make complaints of undiagnosed conditions to support her fraudulent claims.

Britain's biggest ever benefits fraud who faked dementia to pocket £750k jailed (Yahoo News UK)

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100mm

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