Lisa White, 56, claimed she could barely walk but ran two cafes and spent her disability benefits on luxury cruises
A BENEFITS cheat café owner who scammed £152,000 of taxpayers' cash and spent it on luxury cruises has been jailed for 18 months after she was caught on camera singing and dancing to Mariah Carey.
Lisa White, 56, claimed she could barely walk with a stick, used a wheelchair outdoors and needed help dressing and oxygen tanks to aid her breathing.
But all the time she was running two seaside cafés and enjoying a "dream" life cruising in the Med and Caribbean.
Investigators filmed her heaving crates of drinks from a wholesaler, serving food to customers, shopping at Bluewater and walking unaided at the seaside.
After her arrest they also found footage of her dancing around her café kitchen singing to Mariah Carey hit All I Want For Christmas is You.
Judge Tudor Owen said: “She’s dancing around. I can see why she’s happy. If I was getting money for nothing, I’d be happy.”
She had been receiving disability payments for her obesity since 1995 but after a gastric band op in 2005 her weight plunged from 27st to 13st.
However, she kept claiming disability living allowance, incapacity benefit and employment support allowance.
Her husband Andrew, 56, who ran the cafés with her, and sister Karen Taylor, 62, were her paid carers.
Lisa was captured on CCTV struggling with a walking stick when applying for a new council house in Woolwich after lying she shared a small council flat with mum Angela Dempsey, 84, in Eltham, South East London.
She did not tell officials she and her husband secretly owned a seafront apartment in Broadstairs, Kent, which she boasted about in a local magazine.
The couple bought the mansion block flat in 2007 and two years later Lisa was the highest bidder to take over the seafront Bandstand Kiosk, a café called Beyond The Sea.
“My dream by the age of fifty was to live in Grand Mansions and own the Bandstand Kiosk,” she cooed in a local magazine. “Both dreams have come true and I love it.”
The couple, both ex-civil servants, enjoyed five nights on the QE2 cruise liner, a 21-day Mediterranean cruise on the Queen Victoria and a £5,500 26-night Caribbean cruise on the Oceana.
Even after their arrest they jetted off for a 28-night £9,000 New York and Caribbean cruise on the Queen Mary 2.
At Inner London crown court, Lisa White sobbed in the dock as the judge sentenced her to 18 months in prison after she admitted nine counts of fraud, three of failing to notify a change in circumstances and one of money laundering.
Her husband Andrew, a primary school governor, was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years for his part in the scam.
The judge said: "Everything you did was cheating.
"I've no doubt you are sorry you were caught but I'm not entirely convinced the remorse is genuine, not least because even after you were arrested and enquiries began you then went on a cruise.
"You were cruising round the Caribbean no doubt full of remorse - of course not."
Lisa's sister and mother were initially charged with helping the scam but the prosecution offered no evidence against them.
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