15-05-2025
Brazen benefits cheat bodybuilder goes on TV to moan about surgery waiting list
Kerry Hayes illegally claimed incapacity benefit while also winning bodybuilding contests
A benefits cheat who illegally claimed tens of thousands of pounds of incapacity benefit while also winning bodybuilding contests went on TV to moan about NHS waiting lists this week.
Brazen Kerry Hayes, formerly Kerry 'Muscles' Boomer, shocked those who know her past when she appeared on the local BBC news to complain about being on a waiting list for eye surgery.
But we can reveal Hayes was once ordered to pay back almost £50,000 in fraudulently claimed Income support, Incapacity Benefit, Housing Benefit and Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
Hayes at court in 2015
Staggeringly, while she was claiming she was unfit to work and claiming DLA she was working as a personal trainer and competing in bodybuilding competitions – finishing runner-up in the prestigious Northern Ireland Championships the year before she was convicted at Downpatrick Crown Court of benefit fraud.
Hayes also loved the high life and was a keen yachtswoman who competed in races across Ireland while she lived in a plush cottage in sought-after Cultra on Northern Ireland's gold coast - all while claiming benefits.
She was jailed for 12 months but a judge decided to suspend the sentence for three years.
However shortly after that case she was taken to court by the family of an elderly millionaire who had gifted her a luxury city centre apartment before he died.
The married millionaire, who she met at a yacht club in 2010, had showered glamorous Kerry with gifts including a Rolex watch, jewellery, gym membership and sunshine holidays.
Benefit fraud in Northern Ireland is estimated to cost more than £163m a year, according to Department for Communities figures released in February – that's about 2pc of total Stormont expenditure.
That's money that could be spent on vital services like the NHS.
Sources who remember Kerry Hayes when she was Kerry Boomer told the Sunday World they couldn't believe the 'cheek' of her appearing on TV to complain about NHS waiting lists.
'We honestly couldn't believe she had the cheek to go on television and whinge about NHS waiting lists,' said one woman who knew her.
'She a total liar for a start – I wouldn't trust a word that comes out of her mouth. She was always playing the victim and it looks like nothing has changed.
'But to be moaning about the NHS when you took thousands of pounds from the state which could have been used on the NHS and helping those people who really needed it, is shocking.'
Kerry Hayes
News in 90 Seconds - May 15th
Kerry was introduced in a news piece about Health Minister Mike Nesbitt announcing he planned to take advantage of a £215m cross-border scheme which would allow patients waiting longer than two years for an operation to claim back money if they pay for a procedure in the Republic.
She told the BBC she has been on a waiting list for eye surgery for almost eight years after experiencing sudden vision loss in 2016.
She told BBC News NI she is in pain and feels very limited with her vision and what she can do.
'My biggest worry is losing my driving licence if I don't have the surgery early enough because my driving licence is my independence and means everything to all three of us,' she said.
She said she also fears she would be 'at risk of losing my children' as she would not be able to care for them.
Kerry Hayes
She said her son is severely disabled and cannot use public transport.
'I already struggle a lot but I would be totally housebound. I don't know how I could cope caring for him. I don't know what would happen,' she said.
The Department of Health said patients would require prior approval before accessing the scheme.
Other measures include using NI's private healthcare providers to target anyone waiting longer than four years on a hip or knee replacement, colonoscopy, hernia or gallbladder surgery.
Nesbitt said full details of the plan have yet to be outlined and the full range of eligible procedures covered by the cross-border scheme are not yet known.
