Couple jailed after faking sickness to claim $87,000 in holiday scam
British couple Deborah Briton and Paul Roberts, who made headlines earlier this year went they were accused of making a fake holiday sickness claim, have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms in what has been described as a landmark ruling.
53-year-old Briton and 43-year-old Roberts were accused with lodging fraudulent claims that they and their two children had suffered from food poisoning on an all-inclusive holiday in Majorca, Spain with UK holiday company Thomas Cook.
But the couple’s fraud was exposed by numerous posts on social media where the paired had boasted about their holiday being full of “sun, laughter and fun”.
Briton was sentenced to nine months behind bars as she admitted to four counts of fraud, where her partner Robert was sentenced to 15 months for the same offences.
Judge David Aubrey QC described the claims as a “complete and utter sham”.
He said: “They were bogus from start to finish, you were both asserting on your behalfs and on behalf of your two children that on two separate holidays you had suffered illness. They were totally and utterly fake.”
What are your thoughts? Do you think the punishment fits the crime?
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