This St Helens woman who faked cancer, claimed £22k has been jailed
Joan Lesley Clarke, a woman who falsely claimed to have cancer in order to fraudulently obtain over £22,000 in benefits has been labeled a deceiver by a judge who remarked that she possessed a persistent dishonesty.
Clarke counterfeited correspondence from a cancer treatment center to secure funds from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Judge David Aubrey KC characterized Clarke's actions as «bold» and «severe.»
The 62-year-old resident of St Helens pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud and was sentenced to 10 months in prison at Liverpool Crown Court. During the proceedings, it was revealed that Clarke had fraudulently claimed £22,941.01 in personal independence payments spanning the period from 2016 to 2019.
Continued falsehood
Sentencing her, Judge Aubrey mentioned that a letter Clarke had forged, which she had claimed was from Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Wirral, marked the commencement of a falsehood she continued to propagate on numerous occasions. He conveyed that she had not actually had cancer, was not terminally ill, and did not have a chronic condition. He also pointed out that she had consistently, and dishonestly, maintained she did, even when the medical evidence from Clatterbridge had been obtained, revealing that she was not suffering from cancer.
He stated that instead of admitting her lie, Clarke had further claimed in January 2018 that her cancer had worsened and she was receiving increased treatment. The judge stated that, in his judgment, these were serious offenses.
He mentioned that Clarke had previous convictions for dishonesty, and while he wouldn't treat them as aggravating the seriousness of her offenses, they indicated that she seemed to have a dishonest streak in her
