Grandma Who Stole £1 Million In Benefits Jailed

A grandmother who illegally got more than £1m of benefits to spend on beauty treatment, nails, and holidays during a scam spanning almost 15 years has been jailed according to The Mirror.

Christina Pomfrey falsely claimed she was blind, exaggerated her multiple sclerosis, and used the names of her relatives including her own sister to pocket disability living allowance, carers allowance plus a string of other state handouts.

Over a period between 2005 and last January, thrice-married Pomfrey, a former shop assistant said it took her up to 10 minutes to walk a yard, was unable to wash or dress, and needed carers to look after her 24 hours a day.

The 65-year-old also made benefit claims using a house she no longer lived in and even claimed disability benefits in the name of her ex-husband’s first wife who died in a road accident in 1979.

Pomfrey was exposed as a fake after investigators secretly filmed her driving her car, picking up her grandchildren from school, going for walks and going on shopping trips, and beauty salons.

When confronted she claimed to have given the cash away to people with hard-luck stories but enquiries revealed she had been on a series of holidays and regularly ate out, stayed in hotels, and had various treatments at hair and beauty salons.

She was on holiday in Portugal with her third husband when police swooped on her home in Shaw, Oldham Greater Manchester.

When she was at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, Pomfrey showed no emotion and blew kisses at the public gallery at she was jailed for three years and eight months after admitting 32 charges including fraud, false accounting, possessing criminal property and using articles for fraud.

Also, her daughter Aimee Brown, 34, was given 18 months jail suspended for two years for money laundering, after she admitted banking £88,994 of her mother’s ill-gotten gains.

Pomfrey had previous convictions for fraud and deception dating back to 1977 and had been convicted of stealing money from her former employer in 2003.