A County Durham woman faces three years in prison after she was filmed dancing to Michael Jackson - despite being registered as disabled.
Maribel Milligan, 54, of West Cornforth in Count Durham, was sentenced at Teeside Crown Court in February of last year after cheating over half a million pounds in fraudulent benefit claims.
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She is now being forced to pay back over a third of the money that she stole, which she had transferred over to her husband to avoid them being taken from her earlier. She must hand over a sum of almost £200,000 in the next six months or face another three years in jail.
Ms Milligan lived a lavish lifestyle on the back of her ill-gotten gains, enjoying expensive holidays with the taxpayer's money and owning property in South America. She claimed to be severely disabled and consigned to a wheelchair, but the court was shown footage of her dancing to Michael Jackson's 'Bad' at a wedding.
"Milligan lied for 11 years to fraudulently claim benefits," said Adrian Phillips of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Proceeds of Crime team.
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"The Proceeds of Crime team ensured these assets, along with cash in her bank accounts, were restrained so the money could be returned to the public purse. The CPS will continue to work to ensure criminals like Milligan will not benefit from the funds made during their crimes."
When Milligan was arrested in late 2013, she was in receipt of income support, independent living fund payments, council tax benefit, housing benefit, disability living allowance and severe disablement benefit.
She claimed to have no other earnings and to be living alone, though investigators discovered that she was married, running a business and the owner of two properties in Venezuela. She transferred the properties to her husband's name, which are now being claimed back.
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The Proceeds of Crime Team are now in pursuit of the money that she stole, including the houses in Venezuela, which they described as 'tainted'.
Ms Milligan was convicted of five counts of dishonestly retaining a rightful credit, an offence of obtaining services by deception and one count of evasion of liability by deception. She was exposed by a member of the public, who dobbed her in after they became suspicious.
Topics: UK News