Fraudsters jailed over £700,000 benefits con
A ‘SHAMELESS’ couple were jailed yesterday for one of Britain’s biggest-ever benefits scams.
Philip and Laura Borrell, both 45, lived the high life on £702,000 fraudulently claimed by her 66- year- old mother, Frances Noble.
The money was paid out over 13 years by Hertfordshire council to Noble, who falsely claimed she needed round-the-clock care for a brain disorder.
More than £200,000 of the money went to the Borrells, who treated themselves to luxury North American holidays. They also bought a new Volvo while delivery vans dropped off parcels ‘all day long’.
They were rumbled when neighbours spotted Noble walking her dog, pottering around her back garden and unpacking a Tesco delivery at her bungalow. Council investigators spent five days outside the property but recorded no carer visits.
Mr Borrell, a software manager, was jailed for four years and three months and his wife for three years and nine months. The pair, from Weston in Hertfordshire, admitted fraud and acquiring criminal property. They jointly received £184,205 from Noble, while Mrs Borrell was handed another £39,700 and Mr Borrell £6,218.
Noble, from Datchworth in Hertfordshire, was jailed for four years and nine months last month after admitting fraud by false represensalary tation. She remains at large in Germany, however, having moved there in 2019. An extradition warrant has been issued.
Passing sentence at St Albans Crown Court, Judge Richard Foster told the couple: ‘There was evidence of an extravagant lifestyle. You both enjoyed holiday trips to, variously, Boston, San Francisco, as well as to Canada.
‘You, Philip Borrell, had a good but this was subsidised by your use of this criminal money.’
His wife has claimed to be one of the youngest victims of dementia.
She and her husband made an emotional appearance on ITV’s This Morning with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby in 2017 and a GoFundMe page for a trip-of-a-lifetime to the States raised £7,000.
A lawyer representing Mrs Borrell has insisted there was no wrongdoing relating to dementia. But Hertfordshire council has raised the case with GoFundMe, citing ‘deceit’. The benefit fraud started in 2005 when Noble tricked the council into funding a ‘direct payment package’ that allows the disabled to choose carers and pay bills. She forged letters from carers to justify the expenditure when the cash went straight into her bank account. Less than £100,000 is believed to have gone on care.
The claim in court was for £624,000 because the offence Noble admitted came into existence only in January 2007.
The council said it would try to reclaim the money through the Proceeds of Crime Act.
It said it was a ‘sophisticated and devious fraud that shamelessly sought to deceive health and social services professionals’.
‘Sophisticated and devious’