Reform MP under fire for helping 'Britain's biggest benefits cheat' who swindled £740,000 secure bungalow in now-deleted video
A Reform MP has come under fire after seeming to promote the plight of 'Britain's biggest benefits cheat' across her social media channels.
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Yesterday, Sarah Pochin posted a video of Ethel McGill, 76, alongside the caption "helping people like Ethel is why I love my job".
In the clip, Ethel claims that "within two days" of speaking with Reform UK, she was "getting the help I needed", specifically an adapted two-bedroom bungalow.
However, within hours it was deleted from 'X', Facebook and Instagram.
LBC can now exclusively reveal Ms McGill is an amateur actress who was dubbed 'Britain's biggest benefits cheat' by the Daily Mirror in 2019 after her involvement in a £740,000 benefit scam.
Specialist Prosecutor in the Specialist Fraud Division at the CPS, Stephane Pendered said it was "the largest case of benefit fraud by a single person that I have prosecuted".
Sarah Pochin told LBC that Reform UK "stands firmly against benefit fraud and abuse of the system", adding that "as an MP, I have to take people at face value" and that they do not "run background checks" on people asking for support.
It is understood Ms McGill continued to claim her father Robert Dennison's war pension and benefits for 12 years after he died in 2004, as well as feigning dementia and claiming she needed a wheelchair back.
Investigators from the Department of Work and Pensions filmed her walking and driving despite claiming she had debilitating illnesses for 30 years.
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'Breathtaking dishonesty'
Judge Steven Everett told McGill in court "Nobody, including me, believes that you are ill, and that you have been putting this on for years", and said she had displayed "breathtaking dishonesty" and "devious behaviour".
McGill admitted fraud and was jailed for five years and 10 months.
She pleaded guilty to 14 charges including conspiracy to commit fraud, false accounting and false representation after it emerged at Liverpool Crown Court that she would ask a friend to lie in bed and pretend to be her father when authorities visited her Runcorn home.
The prosecutor at the time accused her of making "good use of her amateur dramatic skills by feigning dementia to succeed in her own fraudulent benefit claims".
It is understood Ms McGill continued to claim her father Robert Dennison's war pension and benefits after he died in 2004, as well as feigning dementia and claiming she needed a wheelchair back.
In response Sarah Pochin said "I try to be a hard working local MP, and I am prepared to help anyone in Runcorn and Helsby who asks for my help"
"As an MP, I have to take people at face value. We do not run background checks on people who come to us asking for support. My default is to trust constituents who ask for help."
"I understand the individual concerned has served her time for benefit fraud, and the matters on which my office assisted her were entirely unrelated to that offence."
"Reform UK stands firmly against benefit fraud and abuse of the system. But a responsible Member of Parliament must also deal with each case on its merits and support constituents who come forward asking for help."