A benefits cheat who scammed the system out of more than £1million over a 15-year period has died.

Christina Pomfrey, who was 65 at the time, was jailed in 2020 after scamming Halton and Oldham councils as well as the Department for Work and Pensions. A court heard at the time how at the height of the fraud, Pomfrey was claiming £13,000 a month and splashing out on holidays, clothes and cosmetic treatments.

She pretended she was blind and needed a wheelchair, but she was exposed after investigators caught her driving and reading a newspaper. Following what was described as one of the biggest social security frauds to be prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), she was jailed for three years and eight months after she admitted 34 charges including fraud, false accounting and making or supplying articles for use in frauds.

The total amount she owed Halton was £240,095 which included ineligible direct payments of £188,825, housing benefit overpayments of £50,375 and council tax arrears of £895. Following her conviction the council raised debt invoices to claim the money back, but the authority was recently informed of Pomfrey's death, reports Liverpool Echo.

Halton's ruling executive board will be told later this week the debt will have to be written off due to Pomfrey having no estate to claim the money back from. A report to the executive board, said: "Following the individual's passing, the council continued to attempt to recover the debts from the individual's estate. However, we have been informed that the fraudulently obtained monies had been used to fund day to day living expenses, holidays etc. over many years.

"As a result, there are no assets remaining in the individual's estate from which the council could obtain payment of the outstanding debts. The situation is the same for Oldham Council and the DWP."

The report said that as the debts can no longer be recovered, approval is sought to write-off the outstanding debts, which will be funded from the council's own bad debt provision - a pot of money it earmarks every year to cover money it may not recover from debtors.