Pension credit benefit fraudster stole nearly £150k in taxpayer funds after impersonating her stepmother
A benefit fraudster who impersonated her stepmother has been jailed after stealing nearly £150,000 in taxpayer funds through a five-year deception scheme.
Eliza Assaly, 39, from Harrogate, fraudulently claimed pension credit, housing benefit and attendance allowance by continuing to use her stepmother’s genuine benefit claim after she had moved abroad.
The fraud, which began in September 2017 and continued until she was found out in 2022, involved Assaly transferring payments from her stepmother’s bank account into her own, using false documents to maintain the deception.
Prosecutors revealed that Assaly used fake landlord details and a forged tenancy agreement to perpetrate the fraud across three different benefits.
She provided her husband’s phone number as the contact for a supposed London landlord and created fraudulent documentation for their Harrogate property.
The deception involved careful timing, with none of her stepmother’s four visits to the UK coinciding with when Assaly signed benefit documents or impersonated her in phone calls to the Benefits Agency.
During the scheme, Assaly accessed her stepmother’s bank card while her relative was out of the country, systematically transferring the fraudulently obtained benefits into her own account.
The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, delivered a stern rebuke during sentencing, emphasising the serious nature of benefit fraud against Britain’s most vulnerable.
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“This kind of fraud takes money away from the vulnerable,” Judge Morris told Assaly in court.
“There are people far worse off than you who need sustenance from the state, elderly people living at home who need money for food. Those who take money in this way are depriving their fellow citizens of other benefits.”
The judge rejected arguments that the fraud was unsophisticated, despite defence claims to the contrary.
The total amount stolen by Assaly reached £146,896.10, including £60,358.30 in pension credit and £63,710.85 in housing benefits across two properties. She also fraudulently claimed £22,825.95 in attendance allowance.
The court heard Assaly, who earns £42,000 annually, had accumulated debts paying for artificial fertilisation and dental treatment.
Her defence barrister Susannah Proctor revealed she was 22 weeks pregnant through her third cycle of artificial fertilisation.
Her entire salary is now being used to repay her debts, while her husband, a gas engineer, covers their household expenses.
Despite pleas for a suspended sentence, Assaly was jailed for 15 months at York Crown Court after pleading guilty to seven charges of fraud and one count of possessing a forged document.
The fraudster now faces the prospect of losing her Hookstone Way home in Harrogate.
The government has initiated asset confiscation proceedings in an attempt to recover as much of the stolen £146,896 as possible.