Manchester Arena fraudster loses house after claiming daughter injured in attack

A fraudster who claimed her fake daughter was caught up in the Manchester Arena bombing is now set to lose her house and pension.

Susan Pain was sentenced to two years in prison in September 2018.

She had claimed £140,000 after inventing a child called ‘Sophie’ who she said had been forced to undergo two major operations after being injured in the attack that killed 22 people in May 2017.

The 52-year-old, who worked as an insurance broker, claimed loss of earnings due to time taken off work to look after her daughter.

Pain, who has no children, also invented cancer battles, pregnancies and jury service in 31 fraudulent insurance claims .

Yesterday, Pain appeared at Liverpool Crown Court via video link from HMP Askham Grange to hear that her home will be seized to compensate her victims.

The court will also take her pension when she turns 55, reports the Manchester Evening News .

Christopher Hopkins, prosecuting, said it was agreed that the woman fraudulently claimed £139,834.

He told Judge Anil Murray: "Your honour will have seen reference to a house, a pension and some money in an account.

"The house is available, the money in the account has been spent – the Crown will consider its position in respect of that.

"The pension at present is unavailable, but will be available when the defendant is 55. She is currently 52.

"It is the intention of the Crown to come back and seek a variation to the order when that is available."

Pain’s property was said to be worth in excess of £180,000.

Mr Hopkins added: "Taking off mortgage charges and splitting it 50/50 with her and her husband, it’s £88,134.

"The Crown seeks a confiscation order on that sum please, to be paid by way of a compensation order."

Proceeds of Crime Applications (POCAs) allow prosecutors to apply to re-determine available assets and ask for more cash at a later stage.

This can be from any source of money a person comes into in the future – even an inheritance, lottery winnings or other legitimately earned income.

Rachel Oakdene, defending, conceded: "This isn’t the end of the proceedings."

Judge Murray told Pain she must pay £88,134 within the next three months or face a further year in prison.

Pain replied: "Yes I’ve heard that and understand that."

As the director of a firm that sold policies underwritten by AXA, Pain insured people in the medical and dental professions.

Pain made a claim in her own name, but thought she would avoid detection because she was known at work by her former name Susan Raufer.

Her loss of earnings claim collapsed when AXA was unable to find any record of her daughter who was supposedly injured at the Ariana Grande concert.

From there, AXA reviewed a number of other claims linked to pain and discovered up to seven year’s worth of false claims in the name of friends and family members.

In one such example, she posed as an orthodontist who had taken leave because her daughter required open heart surgery and the hospital was far away from her own.

In others, she submitted applications saying family members of medical professionals were suffering different types of cancer.

Others saw bogus jury service and maternity leave form the basis for submissions.

To back up her claims, Pain forged the signatures of the supposed claimants and provided documents – including NHS procedure and maternity leave papers.

She even forged letters from Her Majesty’s Court Service calling the claimant for jury service.

To launder the payouts, she asked her friends and family, whose names she had used to make the claims, to receive the money into their bank accounts through cheques and transfers.

They had no idea about Pain’s scams – only agreeing to receive the money because she told them it was her bonus payments and she would be able to get a tax advantage if the money was paid into their accounts.

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