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Four years in jail for transsexual ‘countess’ who conned council out of £197,000
Mark Prigg, Science and Technology Editor19 Mar 2010
A transsexual and self-styled 'countess' has been jailed for four-and-a-half years for conning a council out of hundreds of thousands of pounds in benefits.
Marianne Jonson, 49, was found guilty of 23 counts of fraud at Harrow crown court after it emerged she was known by 10 other names, including one she claimed was her twin sister.
That alter ego was the Countess Mariaska Romanov, who ran a local café and even served as a school governess.
The court was shown footage of Ms Jonson, of Wembley, working in the café, despite claiming she was paraplegic.
The court heard she obtained more than £197,000 in benefits and disability payments to fund a lavish lifestyle, including foreign travel, frequent shopping trips to Brent Cross and weekly visits to hair salons and manicurists.
During the trial the jury heard that Jonson, who was born Robert Duxbury, had falsified medical assessment forms, benefit applications, financial returns and other documents in order to obtain about £165,000 in fraudulent benefits and accommodation in social housing specifically reserved for disabled people. She also claimed that she had paraplegia to secure additional benefits. Simon Lane, head of audit and investigation at Brent council, said: “Jonson attempted to frustrate the investigation at every stage.”
Brent council investigators were tipped off by a social services officer who recognised Jonson, who had claimed to be bed-bound, walking her dogs in Roundwood Park, Willesden.
Investigators found the fraud dated back to 1996 when Ms Jonson claimed income support and housing benefit on the basis of being paraplegic, allegedly arising from an accident in a lift in 1992. She claimed to have no income or savings, yet was applying for the lease of the Lodge café in Roundwood Park.
As the café became more successful she applied for a second national insurance number in the name of the Countess Romanov, claiming she had lived abroad for many years and that Marianne Jonson was her twin sister.
She even claimed the café was under threat and persuaded celebrities including TV presenter Louis Theroux to join a campaign to save it.
Surveillance by council investigators showed Ms Jonson to be mobile and footage from the cafe's own cameras showed her serving customers.
As “The Countess”, Jonson was a prominent figure in Brent where she served on various boards and was a school governor. But when social services and housing association officers visited her at home, she would try to avoid recognition by remaining in bed with the blinds down.
Reader views (17)
I am researching this story for a TV documentary, if anyone reading this article knows Marianne - please get in touch via info@plmedia.net
- Lindsey, London UK, 04/08/2010 15:37
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I am researching this story for a TV documentary, if anyone reading this article knows Marianne Johnson please get in touch via info@plmedia.net
- Lindsey, London UK, 04/08/2010 15:35
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Speaking as a UK taxpayer I resent intensely those who cheat the state. In addition, as a genuinely disabled person (wheelchair user) I am also disgusted that those who have never struggled with a disability pretend otherwise to steal money intended for people with real needs. However, this case raises more questions than it answers.
Why is the article written by a 'Science and Technology' editor? Could it be that the average journalist feels that anything (even fraud) with some reference to gender identity is the province of Science?
I am also concerned that this woman's gender identity is considered as pertinent to the case when in-fact it has absolutely no bearing on the matter. Anyone who needs the extra titillation provided by a reference to 'Transsexualism ' (or any word beginning or ending with 'sex') has not really passed successfully through their adolescence. I look forward to the day when UK newspapers and the their readers grow up and accept that the world is not what they may wish it to be, but what it truly is - a complex web of differences and variety and no one is any better than anyone else in terms of sex or gender.
- James, Edinburgh, 01/07/2010 22:29
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how flippin dare u all i knew her from a very young age she may have been a man but 2 me she is a woman because at heart she really was amazing !!! so why dont u all get a life shes not a evil woman! shes very caring woman yes she may have spent alot of money on plastic surgery but she also spent it on so many others!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Elizabeth, london england, 23/03/2010 16:42
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Marieanne was bedridden for years. It was the community cafe project that gave her a reason to get up and walk again....which was a slow and painful process for her. She gave people of the Roundwood community a beautiful and safe place to go who otherwise would have been isolated:offering fair priced, highly nutricious food, toys for children of all ages at great expense....the effort she made was great. I'd love to see more people like her make such a difference who are actually get paid to do it!
- Michelle Harland, Doncaster, South Yorkshire., 23/03/2010 08:19
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i can't believe that she got away with all that money.... i believed that she was a man always did.... also i knew there was something fishy going on when i heard all that she got away with so much i couldn't believe it... what has she gone to a mans or a woman's prison??
- Uk Wouldn'T Like To Give Name, uk, 22/03/2010 22:25
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i think alot of people fell in to her web of lies
- James, london, 22/03/2010 11:51
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I like her Tee shirt; Save the Community?
- Mickinlondon, london, 19/03/2010 16:41
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You can always tell them by the hands and feet, if not the Adam's apple. Transsexuals, that is, not fraudsters.
- Keith, King's Cross, 19/03/2010 16:06
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This identity fraud runs a little bit deeper than your average case. The mention of the sexual identity of the person involved gives the story an extra human dimension. Not all transsexuals are BAD tho!! Had the article said he was pre or post op that would have been sensational. Otherwise I cant see a problem.
- Rob, London, 19/03/2010 15:35
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Why did she/he get away with it so long?
- Jim, London, 19/03/2010 15:34
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Brown will more than likely offer her a peerage when she is released - she is undoubtedly the calibre of person he considers worthy of ennoblment. She will feel very at home amongst all the vermin in ermine currently sitting in the house of lords.
- R.F.York, Yorks, UK, 19/03/2010 15:21
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Wasnt he/she given the option to pay it back before being taken to court !!
- Kev, London uk, 19/03/2010 15:10
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Which ones countess Romanov in the photo?
- Jacob, Referendum Free Zone Region1648A EUSSR, 19/03/2010 14:48
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No not conning the Council, conning the taxpayer. 4 year's inside isn't a lot, should have made it 44 years as a deterrent to others. Here's me slaving my guts out from 15 years old to 63 just to get a meagre state pension that I've paid for in 49 years working full time without taking a penny out the pot.
- Sue, Kent, 19/03/2010 13:48
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MPs do this sort of thing all the time. What's the big deal?
- Trunk, US, 19/03/2010 13:40
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Why is the fact that she is transexual even mentioned?
Just to make the case seem somehow more sensational?
- Lee W, London, 19/03/2010 13:30
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