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A shameless grandmother who stole more than 1 million in benefits has been called the "craftiest woman ever" by her husband.

Christina Pomfrey, 65, used the first name of his husband's late first wife, and falsely claimed she was blind, disabled and suffering from multiple sclerosis as she carried out the con for 15 years, a court heard last month.

At one point she was banking more than 13,000 a month after fraudulently claiming a number of benefits - and she will not have to pay back a single penny of it.

Pomfrey, from Runcorn, Cheshire, convinced her third husband, John, that she owned a string of newsagents and blew the money on everything from clothes and cosmetic treatments to luxury getaways in the Caribbean.

She laundered almost 89,000 over six years through the bank account of her 34-year-old daughter Aimee Brown, the court heard.

Mr Pomfrey said he had no idea his wife of 15 years was carrying out the scam - or claiming to be blind and confined to a wheelchair - until she was caught.

He told the Daily Mail: "She has destroyed my life and I cannot forgive her. She is the craftiest woman I have ever known."

When he met his wife at a Seventies disco at a Butlin's holiday park in Skegness, Lincolnshire, she claimed she was a millionaire who owned seven newsagents around Liverpool.

She was always well-dressed and had "immaculate hair", she bought him an MG car just months after the met and she paid for their holidays abroad, he said.

But she was hiding the truth - she worked in a newsagent's until she was sacked for stealing cash.

She kept up the pretence until December 2017.

Mr Pomfrey, a water softener engineer, added: "I fell for her because I was at a low ebb after my previous wife of 21 years left me for someone else. Tina told me she would look after me and that I should not worry about anything.

"I now think she picked on me because I was another name, in another county, that she could use for her cons. I feel a fool."

Neighbours were stunned that she was able to get away with the con for so long.

The scam unravelled in 2017 when undercover investigators from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) put her under surveillance.

They filmed her walking around Asda unaided, driving a car, reading a newspaper and picking up her grandchildren from school, the Liverpool Echo reported.

Pomfrey confessed, but launched another bogus claim while on bail.

Last month, at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, she was sentenced to three years and eight months for 34 counts including fraud, false accounting and making or supplying articles for use in frauds.

When she was jailed, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that Pomfrey was not subject to a confiscation order.

A spokesperson for the CPS said no assets linked to Pomfrey could be traced during the DWP's investigation into her claims.

Meaning she had squandered a staggering 1,010,090.66 over 15 years.

During one fraud, she claimed it took her up to ten minutes to walk three yards because of her MS. She also claimed she had been totally blind since 2007.

Pomfrey claimed that her sister acted as a personal assistant helping her with her care - a claim her sister remained oblivious to.

As such, when her sister tried to make a legitimate claim for tax credits, she was refused because of Pomfreys fraudulent claims.

When she was arrested in 2017, Pomfrey immediately admitted her guilt.

Despite this - while still under investigation - she made further dishonest benefit claims for Universal Credit in which she lied again about her health and circumstances and falsified documents.

Promfrey's daughter, Aimee Brown, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment suspended for two years for money laundering.

Follow this link:
Gran who lied blindness to steal 1 million in benefits was 'craftiest woman ever' - Mirror Online

This entry was posted on July 11, 2020 at 7:49 pm and is filed under Blindness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |