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Mother claimed £130,000 in benefits faked son’s illness

A 35-year-old British mother claimed £130,000 in benefits by faking her son’s illness, making him appear to be, “one of the sickest children in Britain”, even more disturbing was that she was giving him false medication and forcing him to have surgery.

Police said his bedroom was like ‘a scene out of the TV show Casualty’ with a specialist bed, medical equipment and boxes of liquid food.

The woman had “manipulated highly regarded medical professionals” to con the public, government agencies and children’s charity purses said Detective Constable Mark Uren said, who led the investigation.

He said the mother claimed £20,000 a year in disability living allowance for over half a decade by forcing her young son to be fed through a tube.

Detective Constable Mark Uren continued revealing the motives of the con by saying: “His mother used the fabricated illnesses to take free holidays paid for by charities and was introduced to celebrities. She claimed the highest rate of disability living allowance.

“We discovered that he was, in fact, suffering from none of the symptoms of illnesses that she claimed. She was very cunning and aggressive with medical professionals.”

She told doctors the boy had diabetes and spiked his urine samples with glucose to fool tests. And she conned paediatricians into believing he needed a wheelchair, claiming he had cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, a throat disorder called dysphagia and countless food allergies. She even faked blood samples.

Since the boy was an infant she maintained to doctors, friends and family, even his father, that he was unable to eat or swallow food. She took her son to school in a wheelchair fitted with oxygen bottles and maintained that he had to be fed through a tube into his stomach. Doctors, who were never able to identify the mystery illness, eventually operated and fitted him with a permanent feeding tube.

Dozens of children’s charities also gave her freebies including a new car, tickets to see the X Factor and a cruise in Tenerife. The boy, who was also convinced he was ill, was also introduced to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, avoided detection by missing key hospital appointments, on one occasion claiming she couldn’t attend a diabetic appointment because she had been raped. The false rape claim was reported to police, who were on the verge of making an arrest, after the woman caused injuries to herself to substantiate her claims of a violent attack.

She was eventually found out when a paediatrician raised the alarm after reviewing her son’s medical files and became suspicious that his health problems had gone on for so long without a clear diagnosis.

Yesterday at Exeter Crown Court she admitted perverting the course of justice and child cruelty. She will be sentenced in the New Year.

The court heard she has controlled access to her son, who did not suffer life-threatening abuse but had been ‘mentally traumatised’ by his ordeal.

Judge Stephen Wildblood QC indicated the mother will face a jail term of no more than three years and three months.

         

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