Hertfordshire couple jailed over £624k social care fraud

Laura and Philip Borrell have been jailed for their part in a "sophisticated and devious fraud"

A couple who treated themselves to luxury holidays by receiving money through a bogus care package worth £600,000 have been jailed.

Laura and Philip Borrell, both 45, spent money claimed fraudulently from Hertfordshire County Council by Laura's mother, Frances Noble.

St Albans Crown Court heard Noble, 66, who was sentenced in June, lied about her health for more than a decade.

The pair were convicted of a number of charges including fraud.

At the hearing in June, Judge Richard Foster described the case as "possibly the largest fraud of its type to come before the English courts".

The court was told that between 2005 and 2018, Noble convinced the council that a fake neurological condition was so serious that she required intensive home care at her bungalow near Stevenage.

Frances Noble (left) passed the money over to her daughter and son-in-law, the court heard

It heard Noble claimed to be bed-bound and unable to feed herself, needing round-the-clock care.

However, it was told she was seen by neighbours walking her dog Bertie and investigators watched as she took in a Tesco home delivery, which she was able to unpack.

Her care package was passed to her daughter and son-in-law, who then went on a number of foreign holidays using the proceeds.

Over a 13-year period, Noble obtained £624,047.15.

Noble, 66, of Damask Green Road, Weston, who moved to Germany when a police investigation began in 2019, was jailed for four years and nine months in her absence in June.

She is awaiting extradition from Germany to serve her sentence.

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At a previous hearing, the three admitted one count of fraud, and Noble admitted a further count of transferring criminal property to the sum of £130,649.46.

Laura and Philip Borrell admitted one joint count of acquiring criminal property amounting to £184,203.65.

The pair, of Damask Green Road, also admitted a further count of the same charge, amounting to £39,700 - and £6,218 respectively.

Earlier, Laura Borrell was jailed for three years and nine months - and Philip Borrell for four years and three months.

Laura and Philip Borrell were sentenced to jail terms on Tuesday at St Albans Crown Court

Judge Foster said the couple were "held out at times as carers when clearly you were not".

Sentencing them, he said: "There was evidence of an extravagant lifestyle.

"You both enjoyed holiday trips to variously Boston, San Francisco as well as to Canada in the period 2011 to 2017."

A proceeds of crime hearing to recover the money will be held at a later date.

Hertfordshire County Council said: "Mrs Noble, her daughter and her son-in-law, undertook a sophisticated and devious fraud that shamelessly sought to deceive health and social services professionals over a sustained period of time.

"The trio's offences were planned, calculated and carried out with the intention of abusing a care system designed first and foremost to meet the requirements of those in need of support."