"Benefits fraudster enjoyed luxury holidays and sent kids to private school"

Lucy Parker claimed hundreds of thousands of pounds fraudulently



A benefits fraudster made almost £275,000 from fraudulent benefit claims over a six-year period - and used the money to pay for holidays and to send her children to private schools.

Scheming Lucy Parker, the wife of the National Farmers Union’s head of tax, used the identities of 19 other people, some of whom she knew lived abroad, to make her claims.

She supported the claims with forged documents including bogus doctor’s letters and tenancy agreements, and had a hoard of ‘burner phones’ as contact numbers for her false identities.

But Parker, 56, and of Shipston Road, Stratford, at the time of her ‘systematic fraud,’ was caught after a Job Centre employee recognised her as having made claims in two different names.

Parker, whose home has since been sold, was jailed for two-and-a-half years by a judge at Warwick Crown Court after pleading guilty to nine charges of fraud.

[J]ailing Parker, who now lives in Barby, near Rugby, Judge Potter told her: “This was not a moment of madness on your part, but sustained criminality over a period not of months but many years.

“What you did was to make a large number of false claims, and you were paid as a result just shy of £275,000.

“You were someone who has worked for Warwickshire County Council in social care, well knowing the strain the public services are always under, but in particular were under at that time. You effectively stole money from the public purse.

“You were living, if not a luxurious lifestyle, a very comfortable lifestyle, and you owned your home outright and your children were sent to public school.

“Yours was sophisticated offending. The way you conducted these frauds involved a good deal of thought and planning. It was a highly successful fraud, and it netted you a substantial sum of money.”

And yet people tell me it's virtually impossible to defraud the system!