A mum who forced her children to have unneeded surgeries in order to claim government benefits has been jailed for seven and a half years.
The 49-year-old London woman, who cannot be named, told medical professionals her two children had autism, asthma and other health issues in order to claim almost $670,000 in benefits over a decade before she was arrested in 2013, Metro reports.
Her wild claims about her children’s health meant they had to undergo invasive treatments, including surgery to fit them with gastrostomy tubes for feeding, despite being able to eat normally, after the woman lied to authorities to say they had stomach problems.
Her son was given steroids after she claimed he suffered breathlessness, and he was told to behave as though he had autism.
After a three-month trial, she has been convicted of cruelty, fraud, making a false representation and obtaining money transfer by deception.
Judge Elizabeth Smaller told the woman that despite everything, it was clear her children, who are now in care, still loved her.
“Despite everything your children still love you – that is no doubt, which makes your exploitation of their unconditional love and trust, for them, all the more serious and bewildering.
“The lengths to which you went were creative and well-thought through. They were willful, prolonged and sometimes elaborate,” Judge Smaller said.
“You seem not to have been able to see past your own actions to the indignity of your children.”
The judge said it was down to a lack of communication that the scam was able to continue for so long.
“It is a matter of regret that such qualified and experienced medical professionals at world renowned hospitals did not maintain better channels of communication.
“However busy – and knowledgeable they are in their field – they might all with hindsight have agreed that they could have learned much about this defendant from speaking to (a doctor) and each other.”
