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| Pensioner jailed for '£2.4m' scam | |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| A pensioner has been jailed for five years for masterminding a benefits scam worth as much as £2.4m. | |
| Jean Hutchinson, 65, ran an office hidden behind a secret door at the back of her bedroom wardrobe in her flat in Maida Vale, west London. | Jean Hutchinson, 65, ran an office hidden behind a secret door at the back of her bedroom wardrobe in her flat in Maida Vale, west London. |
| She scoured newspapers to find people who had emigrated before using their identities to claim benefits, Blackfriars Crown Court heard. | |
| Hutchinson pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud between 1996 and 2006. | Hutchinson pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud between 1996 and 2006. |
| 'Criminal enterprise' | 'Criminal enterprise' |
| With the help of a cousin and lax information controls, she was able to amass a seven-figure fortune from false benefit claims, before ploughing the cash into property and shares. | |
| A five-month surveillance operation was launched by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) after they discovered the "highly profitable" scam. | A five-month surveillance operation was launched by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) after they discovered the "highly profitable" scam. |
| Investigators found a hidden doorway leading to a fully equipped "headquarters" where thousands of documents, neatly filed and cross-referenced, were found. | Investigators found a hidden doorway leading to a fully equipped "headquarters" where thousands of documents, neatly filed and cross-referenced, were found. |
| "The fact that the fraudsters found it necessary to construct what was effectively an archive of the fraud indicates the sheer scale of their criminal enterprise," said Anuja Dhir, prosecuting. | "The fact that the fraudsters found it necessary to construct what was effectively an archive of the fraud indicates the sheer scale of their criminal enterprise," said Anuja Dhir, prosecuting. |
| Hutchinson's cousin, Ralph Dale, 63, of Halifax, West Yorkshire, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud. | |
| Passing sentence, Judge Deva Pillay said their crimes allowed them to accrue "what can only be described as extraordinary amounts of money". | |
| These defendants thought they could keep their benefit fraud locked out of sight Anti-Fraud Minister James Plaskitt | |
| The judge said: "The Crown's case, which is substantially supported by vast amounts of incontrovertible evidence, discloses that over a 13-year period you both - and I have no doubt with the connivance of others not before this court - defrauded the Department of Work and Pensions and various local authorities out of sums said to be in excess of £2.4 million by falsely claiming various state-funded benefits. | |
| "Upon the basis of pleas tendered by each of you, the prosecution now estimate, over the 10 years for which each of you appear to accept responsibility, some £1.8m of public money was handed over to you and your accomplices. | |
| "That equates to a staggering £180,000 per annum," she said. | |
| After the case, anti-fraud minister James Plaskitt said: "These defendants thought they could keep their benefit fraud locked out of sight but thanks to our determined fraud investigators their deception had been uncovered and terminated with immediate effect." |