Childless Manchester bombing fraudster invents daughter maimed in the terror attack to claim £140k in handouts
A SHAMELESS fraudster invented a daughter maimed in the Manchester terror attack to claim £140K in handouts.
Susan Pain, 51, told insurance firms her ‘daughter’ Sophie had suffered severe injuries in the horrific blast – but it was all part of a sick lie.
Childless Pain, from Kirkby in Merseyside, was jailed for two years after admitting two counts of fraud at Liverpool Crown Court today.
She claimed just over £139,000 through 31 fraudulent insurance claims – including a cancer scam involving a friend’s son.
Pain, with shoulder-length blonde hair and wearing a black polka dot dress, stared at the floor as she was sentenced.
She was discovered after her final claim, in which she said a daughter called Sophie had sustained multiple serious injuries when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a device at the arena on May 22 last year.
Christopher Hopkins, prosecuting, said:"The defendant in fact had no daughter and the claim was of course false."
Judge Alan Conrad QC said: "I am sure all right-minded members of the public would be shocked, in particular, that you would use a tragedy which shook the nation as the basis for a fraudulent claim."
Pain had worked for insurance broker Money Medical Management, which sold policies underwritten by AXA, the court heard.
She had been at the firm since she was 16 and oversaw a section of the business which provided insurance for medical professionals to cover unexpected loss of earnings.
In the period between January 2010 and August 2017 Pain made claims under the names of friends and family members.
In one she claimed her friend's seven-year-old son had leukaemia, while another said her niece's elderly mother was housebound after a fall.
In July last year she claimed for £2,500 she said she had suffered in loss of earnings after her daughter had been in intensive care following the arena attack and had to undergo major operations.
Judge Conrad said: "In some cases you used false documents in support of claims and such was the trust in which you were held they were never challenged."
Michael Bagley, defending, said: "How she got to this point is still fundamentally difficult to understand."
He said Pain was still in debt, despite the fraudulent claims.
He added: "She is relieved it is over. The greatest punishment for her, of course, is social ruin. She is going to have to confront a life now where all her achievements are set at nought."
Detective Constable Ant Andrews, of City of London Police's Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department, which investigated the claims, said: "Pain exploited the tragic terror attack at the Manchester Arena, as well as other examples of human suffering, to make a financial gain.
"She betrayed the trust she had with her friends and family, using their details to make the false claims, then lying to them so she could receive the money she'd stolen.
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"She is now paying a significant price for her fraudulent activity, not just with the sentence handed down by the court, but also with the loss of her job and reputation."
Carolyn Scott, head of household and lifestyle at AXA Insurance, said: "Ms Pain took advantage of a position of trust to deceive her employer and defraud AXA.
"She used details of extremely upsetting events and circumstances to make fraudulent claims for her own personal gain."
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