Britain’s worst benefits cheat
Actress faked illnesses and hid her own father’s death to claim £750,000
AN amateur actress masterminded a £750,000 benefits scam by hiding her father’s death and faking illness for more than 23 years.
Ethel McGill, 68, was at the heart of a ‘ spider’s web’ of deceit that amounted to the biggest individual benefit fraud in history, officials believe.
The mother-of-two used her acting talents to con authorities into believing her father, Robert Dennison, was alive for over a decade after his death – even showing inspectors into his bedroom with an imposter in his bed – so she could claim his war pension and handouts for round-the-clock care.
But despite raking in almost £600,000 in his name over 12 years, it was still not enough for greedy McGill. She also faked several illnesses – including arthritis and dementia – and claimed she needed a wheelchair to get around to secure a disability living allowance payments and lucrative care package.
Officials became suspicious when McGill made repeated excuses about why her father was not at home. They began investigating and surveillance teams captured McGill shopping, driving, walking and carrying boxes and wooden shelving near her bungalow, in Runcorn, Cheshire. They also discovered her acting profile on the StarNow website, in which she declared she had performed in many roles in amateur plays, ranging from ‘a very hard- hearted Glasgow woman to being a very timid domestic abuse victim.’
Chester Crown Court heard that even when arrested, in March 2016, McGill kept up the pretence, telling police Mr Dennison was ‘away at the caravan’. In reality Mr Dennison, a former infantry man in the British Army during the Second World War, had died, aged 82, in 2004.
The court heard McGill, originally from Glasgow, spent a month at a mental health hospital after her arrest before five psychiatrists concluded there was nothing wrong with her. She has since been diagnosed with ‘factitious illness disorder’ – a condition in which someone deceives others by appearing sick.
Yesterday McGill was brought into court by wheelchair, but a judge questioned whether she was still ‘ putting it on’. She admitted 14 counts of fraud and money-laundering in June.
Judge Steven Everett, the Recorder of Chester, told her she was a ‘very devious woman.’
‘I’m sure you know what’s going on Ethel McGill,’ he said. ‘Listen to me, you are insulting my intelligence.’
He added: ‘Let’s be crystal clear, I’m going to send her to prison. It’s like a spider’s web and she is at the heart of it.’
He told the court he was forced to adjourn the case to Liverpool Crown Court, where there are better facilities for wheelchair users, but ordered McGill be put under house arrest until 6am on July 29, when she will be sentenced.
The court heard she obtained £590,000 in her dead father’s name, including housing and council tax benefits, a war pension and a council pension from his time as a binman.
Another £125,000 was claimed by McGill in DLA, plus another £27,000 was paid to her son, Christopher McGill, 28, in carer’s allowances for looking after her. McGill also persuaded Hannah Bazley, 25, girlfriend of her other son, Anthony, 29, to apply for a care package to support her fictitious dementia.
McGill said the money she claimed had gone to ‘worthy causes’ but prosecutors are baffled as to what she spent it on.
They said she lived in a modest bungalow, with ‘ no evidence’ of a lavish lifestyle. Stephane Pendered, CPS spokesman, said: ‘Not content with her father’s pensions, housing and tax benefits under false pretences, Ethel McGill made use of her amateur dramatic skills by feigning dementia to succeed in her own fraudulent claims.’
‘Made use of her acting skills’