A British woman who pretended to be her deceased mother to defraud an insurance company and the government of £66,000 has been put behind bars.
Maria Blacklock, 58, of Maida Vale, London, was sentenced to two years of imprisonment on September 26 at the Inner London Crown Court. She was also ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
Blacklock pleaded guilty in July to fraud by false representation and money laundering offences linked to a £66,000 scam.
According to the City of London Police’s insurance fraud enforcement department (IFED), Blacklock relocated to Las Vegas from the UK in the mid-2000s with her mother, who received pension payments from insurer Phoenix Group.
Blacklock’s mother died in June 2011, but instead of telling this to the government and Phoenix Group, she falsified documents to make it appear that her mother was still alive in Las Vegas.
Blacklock then used her mother’s bank cards and accounts to withdraw and spend the money being paid – £31,320 in state pension payments and £35,111 from Phoenix Group.
In September 2014, Phoenix Group and the Department for Work and Pensions learned about Blacklock’s scam, which was later referred to insurance fraud investigators.
Authorities arrested Blacklock in November 2015 in London, following her return to London in September 2013.
Through their investigations, detectives established that Blacklock used her mother’s pension payments to fund her lifestyle and gambling in Las Vegas.
“In my 30 years as a police officer and investigator I have never come across an act that was as callous and cold-hearted as this,” said IFED financial investigator Simon Styles.
“She deliberately set out to defraud not only the insurer who was paying her mother’s private pension, but also the DWP and the taxpayer who ultimately picks up the bill for the state pension payments,” Styles added.
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