Mother who shaved son's head in cancer scam jailed.

I read this in the 'I' today and was absolutely disgusted. This article is from the BBC website though:

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A mother who shaved off her son's hair to pretend he had cancer has been jailed for three years and nine months.

The woman from Gloucestershire kept up the pretence for almost three years while the boy was aged six to eight in order to claim extra benefits, Gloucester Crown Court heard.

She admitted one count of child cruelty, eight counts of fraud and one of forgery by faking doctors' letters.

The woman even put her son in a wheelchair while on holiday in Florida so they could jump queues at a theme park, the court heard.

Jailing the 36-year-old, Judge Jamie Tabor said: "You shaved his head and paraded him in public as a victim of cancer.

"I have no doubt that there have been periods in your life when you have been unwell but also I have no doubt that you have all but lost the ability to tell the truth."

The court was told the woman shaved off her son's hair and eyebrows to mimic the effects of chemotherapy and claimed £85,899.44 in benefits.

These included disability living allowance and carers' allowance, as well as child tax credits claimed by falsely saying other children were living with her.

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She also forced him to go to school in a wheelchair *I believe*. People who do stuff like this to their children for a bit of extra cash make me sick.

wow that's actually vile. very low. feel awful for the poor child..

How terrible. How sick in the head do you have to be to do this?

Wow, she is really inconsiderate to say there are tonnes of people who actually have cancer, who are too ill to be treated by going to theme parks and even going outside. She seriously needs to consider her actions before doing them.

wowwwwww

the fact that she must have thought she'd get away with it...

The things people will do for money amazes me. Poor kid.

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Originally Posted by dirrty

the fact that she must have thought she'd get away with it...

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The fact that she DID get away with it for almost 3 years? Just shows how crap the systems in the UK are, how could this not of been picked up? Surely there are things in place and you'd need medical notes for evidence? It's not like I could just go down my local benefit office and go "iyaz ma nme jacob gt cancer gimmie $$$". What the actual frig!

Disgusting that she would do that and a custodial sentence is appropriate imo.

Can't believe that. Thats disgusting tbh. Poor kid. Don't know what's running through peoples heads when they do things like that.

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Originally Posted by Jake

The fact that she DID get away with it for almost 3 years? Just shows how crap the systems in the UK are, how could this not of been picked up? Surely there are things in place and you'd need medical notes for evidence? It's not like I could just go down my local benefit office and go "iyaz ma nme jacob gt cancer gimmie $$$". What the actual frig!

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She forged doctors letters. A Council won't pursue a matter further as it would be inconsiderate and OTT when it's unlikely someone is that disgusting to lie about having or suggesting someone under their care cancer just to gain benefits. It shows how caring our systems are and how easily trust and care can be broken by vile human beings :P

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Originally Posted by GommeInc

She forged doctors letters. A Council won't pursue a matter further as it would be inconsiderate and OTT when it's unlikely someone is that disgusting to lie about having or suggesting someone under their care cancer just to gain benefits. It shows how caring our systems are and how easily trust and care can be broken by vile human beings :P

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How did she manage that? Surely it isn't an EASY thing to do if she weren't medical herself?

What a disgusting woman. It's sad how desperate some people are to get money...

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Originally Posted by Jake

How did she manage that? Surely it isn't an EASY thing to do if she weren't medical herself?

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You can get fake medical documents online... Same goes for qualifications/degrees etc, obviously following them up will show they are fake but as someone already said its a rare occurrence for something like this to happen and they would save money in the long run not following up on things like this because it's not every day someone pretends that they have or their child has cancer.

That is just wrong

Seriously sick. Surprised she got away with it for so long too!

disgusting that she did all that for some extra money.. eh.

i don't really get the wheelchair for the theme parks, pretty sure a lot of people do that in florida (as i got suggested it by someone, i didn't though :P) but i think everything else she did was pretty awful. feel so sorry for the kid.