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| Pensioner jailed for £2.4m scam | Pensioner jailed for £2.4m scam |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| A pensioner has been jailed for five years for masterminding a benefits scam worth £2.4m. | A pensioner has been jailed for five years for masterminding a benefits scam worth £2.4m. |
| Jean Hutchinson, 65, ran an office hidden behind a secret door at the back of her bedroom wardrobe in her flat in Maida Vale, west London. | Jean Hutchinson, 65, ran an office hidden behind a secret door at the back of her bedroom wardrobe in her flat in Maida Vale, west London. |
| She spent years scouring newspapers for stories about people who emigrated before stealing their identities, Blackfriars Crown Court heard. | She spent years scouring newspapers for stories about people who emigrated before stealing their identities, Blackfriars Crown Court heard. |
| Hutchinson pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud between 1996 and 2006. | Hutchinson pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud between 1996 and 2006. |
| 'Criminal enterprise' | |
| With the help of a mute cousin and lax information controls, she was able to amass a seven-figure fortune. | |
| The money was then ploughed into property and shares. | |
| A five-month surveillance operation was launched by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) after they discovered the "highly profitable" scam. | |
| Investigators found a hidden doorway leading to a fully equipped "headquarters" where thousands of documents, neatly filed and cross-referenced, were found. | |
| "The fact that the fraudsters found it necessary to construct what was effectively an archive of the fraud indicates the sheer scale of their criminal enterprise," said Anuja Dhir, prosecuting. | |
| Hutchinson's cousin, Ralph Dale, 63, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud. |