Latest news with #WestLancashireBoroughCouncil
Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Benefits cheat mother who invented fake medical issues for teenage son to claim £170,000 is jailed
A mother who pretended her son was suffering from fake medical conditions as part of a campaign to fraudulently claim £170,000 in benefits has been jailed for two years. Angela Lloyd, 58, from Merseyside, said the 15-year-old needed a carer called Joyce Bibby - a woman who died before the claim was even made. She also lied about her job at Tesco and concocted a range of pseudonyms over an 11-year campaign to steal taxpayer's cash. The part-time care worker even used a dead woman's identity as part of a con which saw her partner Lee Phillips net ill-gotten gains amounting to a further £100,000. Liverpool Crown Court heard on Tuesday Lloyd fraudulently claimed a total £169,394 in housing benefit, personal independence payments and carer's allowance. While Phillips helped himself to £100.980 in false claims for employment support allowance, PIP, housing benefit and council tax reduction. Prosecutor Olivia Beesley said Lloyd's con first began in February 2012 when she started claiming housing benefits in relation to a caravan. The 58-year-old even created a false tenancy agreement for the 'entirely fictitious' caravan, enabling her to swindle £71,597 from West Lancashire Borough Council. Lloyd then began making fraudulent claims in respect of Phillips to St Helens Borough Council in 2018. She claimed her husband required 'multiple daily carers to attend to his needs' and used his sister Zoe Phillips' birth certificate to pose as the sibling, whom she falsely maintained was his main carer. She also claimed that she was not in employment due to caring commitments for her co-defendant, which she said amounted to 35 hours per week. However, she was in fact working for care company Hand in Hand Homecare under the pseudonym Wendy Lloyd and at a Tesco store using the name Angela Valentine. This saw her benefit to the tune of £73,085 in relation to costs for fictitious carers, as well as £753.40 in carers allowance. From January 2022, Lloyd then began to pretend her son had a medical condition. She stated he had a carer called Joyce Bibby, a woman who had died before the claim was initiated. As a result, she falsely claimed £9,922 in disability living allowance overpayments and personal independence payments of £508 in relation to the then 15-year-old boy. Meanwhile, she benefited from £13,526 of PIP 'on the grounds that she needed carers to help with her daily care due to her health conditions', again naming the deceased Ms Bibby as her social worker. Phillips also failed to disclose to the council that Lloyd had moved into his home in St Helens during 2018. This enabled him to continue to claim £13,633 in housing benefits and £2,246 in council tax reductions on the false basis that he was living alone. The 54-year-old was further said to have 'exaggerated his medical conditions, caring needs and capabilities' in order to pocket PIP overpayments of £32,073. Having declared himself unfit for work and claimed to have no other income he falsely gained a further £51,397 in employment support allowance. Phillips later alleged that Lloyd 'had completed the form for him and had just asked him to sign it'. His counsel Jim Smith said: 'The defendant has a complex recent history of mental health and physical disabilities. He suffers from a functional neurological disorder. 'He has a pacemaker with a defibrillator fitted. He is a type two diabetic. He suffers from kidney failure, anxiety and depression. 'He is in receipt of substantial medication to treat those conditions and is presently seen by a number of carers who attend to his medication and mobility issues. He appears in court today in a wheelchair. 'It is respectfully submitted that the defendant would be highly vulnerable in a custodial setting. I would respectfully submit that your honour can draw back from that sanction. 'He has no previous like convictions. His original benefits were legitimate from the outset and became illegitimate following a failure to notify a change of circumstances following involvement with the co-defendant in his life. Clearly, there are vulnerability issues in his case.' Lloyd had a series of past convictions for dishonesty offences and theft dating back to the 1980s, although her last court appearance was in 2012. Jeremy Rawson, defending, told the court: 'Her record, I accept, does not assist her, but it is of some age. 'She accepts full responsibility for what she has done and accepts in her letter to your honour that she does have to be punished for that. 'She has personal mitigation. She continues in employment. She is making some repayments. She is working in the caring profession. She has caring responsibilities with her son.' Lloyd admitted a total of seven counts of fraud by false representation. She burst into tears and cried 'oh my god' as she was locked up for two years. Phillips pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and three counts of dishonestly failing to disclose information to make a gain. He was seen wiping tears away with a tissue as he was locked up for 20 months. Sentencing, Judge Simon Medland KC said: 'You have both pleaded guilty to a substantial and determined fraud on the public purse. 'You invented fictitious addresses, used false names, used a dead person's identification and lied about the extent of [your son's] illness. 'In your case, Mr Phillips, you have nothing relevant by way of antecedents, and the amount that you defrauded is substantially less than that of your co-defendant. 'In your case, Ms Lloyd, for over 40 years, you have been committing offences of dishonesty. 'I acknowledge that your risk of reoffending may be low and that you do not present a threat to the public at large, but I have to consider punishment and deterrent. 'For those who seek to defraud the public of scarce and valuable benefits which need to be directed to those who need them, not those who simply wish to have them for reasons of personal greed, that is a serious offence committed by each of you over a long period of time.'
BBC News
08-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Skelmersdale £150m redevelopment masterplan approved
A £150m revamp of a west Lancashire town that will see 400 new homes built has been West Lancashire Borough Council project for sites in Skelmersdale town centre will also include a leisure hub, commercial units and restaurants along a new high was approved after a six-week consultation which led to changes including improved accessibility and transport Lancashire Borough Councillor Melissa Parlour said it was "a realistic and deliverable plan that puts residents' priorities at the centre". She said the project was a response to "what we've heard from the community".Tawd Valley Developments Limited, the council's wholly-owned development company, will lead the redevelopment details about the scheme "will emerge over time", with the project expected to take 10 to 15 years, the council have been made to the plan since it was first unveiled, including the relocation of the concourse bus station to street-level and more investment in Tawd Valley were also raised in the consultation about the affect of the new homes on the capacity of schools, healthcare sites and a result, planners agreed the masterplan will be delivered in phases, with the building of new homes to come alongside efforts to avoid placing undue pressure on local services. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
