A mother, who was a former drug addict, used the identities of her dead children in order to swindle £50,000, which is around $61,400. The punishment of the mother was to only pay back £1.
The mother was identified as Maria Pridmore, 36, and has been jailed for three years prior to her pleading guilty in August. Pridmore used the name of her son, Kia, who died in 2009 when he was only two weeks old, and her daughter Shannon, who was stillborn, to claim around £16,000 in housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support. Aside from using her dead kids' identities, she also targeted an 84-year-old elder, who is suffering from dementia, to get £6,000 via her credit cards, Daily Mirror reported.
Capital Bay reported that Pridmore also pleaded guilty of taking more than £30,000 from friends and two elderly women then used the bank details of one of them to pay for a taxi fare that was around £60. The taxi fare was from a cab she used to get to a court hearing to answer about the theft charges made against her.
Earlier this week, Pridmore appeared at a hearing at Lincoln Crown Court via a video link from the Drake Hall prison in Staffordshire where she is being held. She was ordered to repay her victim with only £1 since she has no assets to pay for the scammed money. It remained unclear what the people who brought charges against her will do regarding the money swindled from them.
Pridmore suffered 14 miscarriages. She has one healthy daughter after 13 years of the miscarriage. The daughter was born in 2012. She was also a former nurse but it's unclear where her daughter is.
Pridmore could serve only half of her sentence and will be released on license after. Being on license means that the person still is serving jail time but could resume living normally outside of prison.
