BRITAIN’S biggest benefits cheat faked dementia and hid her war hero dad’s death to pocket £750,000 in taxpayers’ cash. Amateur actress Ethel McGill, 68, “made good use of her dramatic skills” to trick doctors into signing her off to claim disability allowance and other benefits. Her claims began in 1992, when she falsely told authorities […]
BRITAIN’S biggest benefits cheat faked dementia and hid her war hero dad’s death to pocket £750,000 in taxpayers’ cash.
Amateur actress Ethel McGill, 68, “made good use of her dramatic skills” to trick doctors into signing her off to claim disability allowance and other benefits.
Her claims began in 1992, when she falsely told authorities she had asthma, arthritis and severe back pain.
She also failed to tell officials that dad Robert Dennison, who fought in World War Two, died in 2004 — so she could swipe his war pension.
Eight years after his death McGill showed a visiting benefits assessor a figure in his bed and urged them not to speak to him because he could get “aggressive”.
She began to feign dementia in 2015 to boost her payments. Overall she claimed an average of £30,000 a year for 25 years.
Prosecutors called it “the largest case of benefit fraud by a single person” they had seen. McGill, of Runcorn, Cheshire, admitted fraud and money laundering.
But she avoided sentencing at Chester crown court after arriving in a wheelchair and claiming she could not walk into the dock — despite surveillance footage showing otherwise.
Judge Steven Everett questioned if she was “putting it on” and called her “devious”.
He adjourned sentencing until July 29 at Liverpool crown court — which has better wheelchair facilities.
