A town council in the UK is set to write off over £240k owed by a benefit cheat following her death. Christina Pomfrey, a grandmother from Runcorn, was sentenced in 2020 for defrauding Halton and Oldham councils as well as the Department for Work and Pensions of more than £1m.
The court heard that at the peak of the fraud, Pomfrey was claiming £13,000 monthly, spending lavishly on holidays, clothing and cosmetic treatments. Over a span of 15 years, she used false identities and claimed to be disabled to claim the money, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Her claims included that she was blind and wheelchair-bound, but surveillance footage showed her driving and reading a newspaper while walking. Following what was termed one of the largest social security frauds prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), she pleaded guilty to 34 charges including fraud, false accounting, and making or supplying articles for use in frauds. She was subsequently jailed in 2020 for three years and eight months at the age of 65.
Pomfrey’s debt to Halton totalled £240,095, comprising ineligible direct payments of £188,825, housing benefit overpayments of £50,375, and council tax arrears of £895. After her conviction, the council issued debt invoices to reclaim the money, but it was recently notified of Pomfrey’s passing.
Halton’s executive board will learn that the council’s debt must be written off because Pomfrey left no assets to claim the owed funds from.
A report to the executive board, said: “Following the individual’s passing, the council continued to attempt to recover the debts from the individual’s estate. However, we have been informed that the fraudulently obtained monies had been used to fund day to day living expenses, holidays etc. over many years.
“As a result, there are no assets remaining in the individual’s estate from which the council could obtain payment of the outstanding debts. The situation is the same for Oldham Council and the DWP.”
It was further explained in the report that since the debts cannot be collected, the council is seeking approval to write them off. This write-off would be covered by the council’s bad debt provision, an amount designated each year to manage unrecoverable debts.