Mother jailed for faking children’s illnesses to claim £375,000 in benefits scam

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A mother who pretended her children were ill and forced them to have surgery in order to falsely claim benefits has been jailed.

The 49-year-old woman from Croydon, south London, told doctors two of her six children had series of health problems, including asthma and autism, meaning they were given drugs they did not need and went through needless invasive treatment.

The woman, who cannot be named to protect her children’s identity, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail at Croydon Crown Court.

She was able to claim more than £375,000 in benefits over the course of 10 years, before being arrested by police in 2013. She was convicted last month of cruelty, fraud, making a false representation and obtaining money transfer by deception.

The children, a young boy and girl, had surgery to fit them gastronomy tubes for feeding when the woman told authorities they had stomach problems, despite them being able to eat normally.

Her son was given steroids after she claimed he suffered from breathlessness and he was told to behave as though he had autism.

At the time of her conviction, the Metropolitan Police, which led a three-year investigation into her case, involving 114 witnesses for the prosecution, described the woman's behaviour as "staggering".

A probe was launched by the Met's Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command after a child protection referral in 2013 amid concerns she had exaggerated and falsified details about her children's health.

The court heard she received £287,800 in income support payments between 2002 and 2013 as well as disability living allowance, the BBC reported.

Judge Elizabeth Smaller said: "The lengths to which you went were creative and well-thought through. They were willful, prolonged and sometimes elaborate.

"You seem not to have been able to see past your own actions to the indignity of your children.

"Despite everything your children still love you - that is no doubt, which makes your exploitation of their unconditional love and trust, for them, all the more serious and bewildering."

After sentencing the woman, Judge Smaller questioned how the situation had been allowed to endure for a decade.

"It is a matter of regret that such qualified and experienced medical professionals at world renowned hospitals did not maintain better channels of communication," she said.

Dr Eveline Knight-Jones, who prepared the paediatric overview for the trial, said: “In London it is all too easy for fabricated illness cases to attend several different hospitals some distance from their local hospital, because there are so many hospitals, particularly specialist hospitals.”

Malcolm McHaffie, deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS London, said the woman had shown "extraordinary cruelty" and had been motivated by "dishonesty and greed".

Additional reporting by Press Association