Council to write off £240k owed by benefit cheat

Christina Pomfrey was followed by undercover investigators

A council is set to write off more than £240,000 owed to it by a benefit fraudster following her death.

Runcorn grandmother Christina Pomfrey was jailed in 2020 after claiming more than £1m from Halton and Oldham councils as well as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Following her conviction Halton borough council raised debt invoices to claim some of the money back, but the authority was recently informed of Pomfrey's death.

At the height of the fraud, Pomfrey was claiming £13,000 a month and splashing out on holidays, clothes and cosmetic treatments, a court heard at the time.

She had used false identities and claimed to be disabled in order to swindle the money over a 15-year period, reported the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Her lies included claiming she was blind and needed a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis, but surveillance by investigators showed her driving and going for a walk while reading a newspaper.

The case was described as one of the biggest social security frauds to be prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Christina Pomfrey owed Halton Council £240,095 when she died

Pomfrey, then 65, eventually admitted 34 charges including fraud, false accounting and making or supplying articles for use in frauds and was jailed for three years and eight months in 2020.

At the time of her sentencing at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Sophie McKone said Pomfrey was "staggeringly dishonest" and guilty of "determined benefit fraud on a substantial scale".

The total amount she owed Halton was £240,095 which included ineligible direct payments of £188,825, housing benefit overpayments of £50,375 and council tax arrears of £895.

Halton's ruling executive board will be told later this week the debt will have to be written off due to Pomfrey having no estate to claim the money back from.

The write-off will be funded from the council's own bad debt provision – a pot of money it earmarks every year to cover money it may not recover from debtors.