Payback: Benefit cheat with EIGHT homes ordered to repay every penny
after £600,000 scam
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:57 PM on 07th March 2009
A mother and daughter who bought eight houses and a number of luxury
cars through a benefits scam have been ordered to repay more than
£600,000.
Enid Bell, 67, was jailed for four-and-a-half years last year after she
used a host of bogus identities and separate bank accounts to falsely
claim income support, disability living allowance, council tax benefit,
housing benefits and pension credits over a 12-year period.
Her daughter Lorraine Bell, 30, was imprisoned for two years for helping
her to fill in a catalogue of claim forms generated by the fictitious
names created by her mother.
A confiscation hearing at Burnley Crown Court has now ordered that the
pair, from Whalley Range, Manchester, must repay every penny that they
stole from the Department of Work and Pensions.
Enid must repay more than £347,000 while Lorraine, who bought an Audi TT
car with the registration plate LOZZIE B, has to return more than
£265,000.
The majority of the money will be taken from their properties and
assets.
Judge Beverley Lunt sentenced Enid Bell last year at Preston Crown after
she admitted conspiracy to defraud. Her daughter pleaded guilty to the
same offence.
A DWP spokesman said: 'This confiscation hearing illustrates the serious
consequences of committing benefit fraud.
'Not only have the Bells received heavy prison sentences, the department
has now sought full reimbursement of all money fraudulently obtained to
ensure that fraudsters do not benefit financially from their criminal
activities.'
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