Grandmother jailed for 600,000 benefit fraud which allowed her to buy EIGHT houses

Enid Bell, 67, masterminded the scheme, involving a number of family members, to steal from the Department of Work and Pensions and local councils.

Her daughter, mum-of-two Lorraine Bell, 30, was her 'right hand' in the cunning scheme, which went on for 12 years, and allowed the pair to buy eight houses.

Fraud: Enid Bell, 67, masterminded the family scam

Yesterday Enid Bell, who sat through the court hearing in a wheelchair, was sent to prison for four-and-a-half years. The court heard she'd been jailed previously for deception in 1995.

Her daughter was sentenced to two years and three months after both pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy at Preston Crown Court.  

Three other family members - Bell's husband George, her son Terence, and her brother Cecil - also appeared in court and admitted dishonesty charges.

Bell used at least eight different identities, all backed up with birth certificates and national insurance numbers, to make bogus benefit claims.

Family affair: Enid's daughter Lorraine Bell, 30, was her 'right hand' in the scam

She also used a variety of different addresses, but always used properties which she either owned or had control over because they were owned by family members.

Separate bank accounts were set up in false names in order to make it difficult for anyone to trace the payments back to her.

The court was told each of the various identities, which included her maiden and former married names, had a number of benefit claims made against them include income support, Disability Living Allowance (DLA), pension credits, housing benefits and council tax benefit.

Husband George Bell, 71, and son Terence, 43, also admitted being involved

Mr David McLaughlin, prosecuting on behalf of the DWP, said: 'This was an extremely well organised and complex fraud.

'Enid Bell even managed to dupe seven different doctors in order for Disability Living Allowance to be paid.'

The court heard Enid Bell claimed almost £40,000 in income support, council tax and housing benefit from her home address in Stanley Road, Whalley Range, between June 2000 and June 2007.

At the height of the con she used the name Edna Davis to make claims for income support, pension credit, DLA, housing benefit and council tax benefit to the tune of £106,000.

She also made claims under the name of Edna Joyce Coley for £109,000, Joyce Simms £106,000, Elmay Joyce Rose Simms £58,000, Cynthia Bell £58,000, Maureen Simms £56,000, Ester Rose Davis £29,000 and Margaret Smith £23,000.

Bell, who sat through the court hearing in a wheelchair, was said to suffer from a variety of genuine illnesses and ailments including hypertension, angina, blackouts, stomach ulcer, nervous debility, claustrophobia, and suicidal tendencies.

But the court was told she calmly and methodically continued to defraud the DWP and other agencies by making fictitious claims.

Enid's brother Cecil Coley, 69, admitted being involved in the deception

Sentencing her, Judge Beverley Lunt said: 'You are a thoroughly dishonest and greedy person. Deception is second nature to you.

'That you were able to steal from the taxpayer money for twelve years to a tune of well over half a million pounds is a matter of grave concern.

'More so is that this was money intended to help vulnerable people in genuine need and distress.'

The court heard Enid Bell, a Jamaican-born pensioner, was sentenced to nine months imprisonment for a benefit fraud involving Manchester City Council and Trafford Council in 1995 and started up her dishonest enterprise again just four days after being released.

Three years ago she appeared before magistrates in Blackpool on deception charges under another name, but the court had been unaware of the extent of her activities, and the case against her was dropped because of her ill health.

The court was told Lorraine Bell, from Withington Road, Whalley Range, had played a significant and essential role in helping her mother, mainly by filling in claim forms for her.

The judge said she accepted that she had first involved in the scheme at an impressionable age, but told her: 'It is difficult to understand why you didn't say no - particularly in the years that followed.'

Enid Bell's brother Cecil Coley, 69, of Shrewsbury Street, Whalley Range, who pleaded guilty to a charge of false accounting, was given a 16-week jail sentence suspended for twelve months.

The judge said he had played the role of the silent partner, by allowing his address to be used for fraudulent claims, and gained nothing personally from the conspiracy.

George Bell, 71, was given a conditional discharge for three years for making a false pension credit claim of £1,635, and Enid Bell's son Terence, 43, of Shrewsbury Street, Whalley Range, was given a 30-week sentence suspended for two years for falsely claiming Jobseekers' Allowance of £8,400 over a period of four years.

The court was told that the pension credit and Jobseekers' Allowance claims had been discovered during the investigation into Bell's activities by the DWP.

The web of deceit was only uncovered by fluke when Lorraine Bell went to hospital and social workers became involved with her case.