Mother faked son's illness and put him through medical hell to claim £130,000 benefits

A mother claimed £130,000 in benefits for her son by pretending he was disabled in a six-and-a-half year deceit during which she kept him wheelchair bound and convinced doctors he was so unwell they should operate on him. The 35-year-old lived a ''high flying'' life on benefits after telling doctors the boy had diabetes and backed up her claims by providing false urine samples spiked with glucose.

She claimed her son - now aged eight - had cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, the throat disorder dysphagia, and was allergic to all types of food. She fitted him in extra large clothes to make him look ill and told doctors, friends family - and even the boy's father - that he was unable to eat or swallow food. He was believed to be so ill that he was praised by a leading children's charity and even met Royalty including the Duchess of Cornwall.

Children's charities also paid for her to have a new car, tickets to see the X Factor and enjoy top holidays including a cruise in Tenerife. She took the boy to school in a wheelchair fitted with oxygen bottles and gave him a special diet for diabetics which saw him prescribed medication he did not need and receive care at three hospitals. The woman invented so many false symptoms from an early age that doctors regularly fed him through a tube and were eventually forced to operate in a bid to find a mystery illness which didn't exist.



His condition was thought to be so rare medics eventually fitted him with a permanent feeding tube meaning he was fed through a food pump he had to wheel around behind him. She fabricated many symptoms of illnesses over a six and a half year period following the child's birth in 2001 that the boy spent at least six weeks a year in hospital. The woman managed to avoid detection by skipping key hospital appointments which would have proved the child was not sick by claiming she had been assaulted and raped. Exeter Crown Court heard she claimed £20,00-a-year for six-and-a-half years - a total amount of £130,000.

The woman admitted one count of cruelty on a person under 16 from which she caused or procured a child to be ill-treated, abandoned or exposed in a manner causing unnecessary suffering or injury to health. She also admitted a charge of intending to pervert the course of justice for making a false accusation of rape.

The court heard that the child did not suffer life-threatening abuse but his mother had ''benefited financially'' from false disability living allowance claims. The boy and his sister are now being cared for. It is thought he will recover from many of the physical problems inflicted but is said to be ''mentally traumatised'' by his ordeal. Judge Stephen Wildblood QC ordered psychiatric reports to be carried out.