Conwoman 'invented' children

Posing as her own mother and later her daughter, greedy catering assistant Paula Hannant, of Perton, in South Staffordshire, simply phoned up Revenue & Customs with unchecked claims during a fiddle branded "frighteningly easy" by her own lawyer.

The 40-year-old was today starting a 16-month jail sentence for ripping off taxpayers – a fraud she persisted with despite being imprisoned for a year for doing the same in Durham.

Her swindle included:

* Falsely claiming her father Malcolm Metcalfe had started receiving disability allowance after phoning up benefits staff pretending to be her mother Margaret. Her claims were waved through and his tax credits went up.

* Boosted her handouts even further by saying her mother had adopted twins. As she had access to her parents' bank account, she took the cash.

* Inventing another foster child months six months later.

* Making up a second set of adopted twins as her confidence grew.

* Masquerading as her daughter to claim she was caring for disabled twins after being released early from a 12-month prison sentence for a £58,000 fraud in Durham. Her scam spanned from July 2004 until March 2006. Yesterday at Wolverhampton Crown Court she admitted five charges of fraud. The court heard how in August 2001 she was conditionally discharged by magistrates for making lying to obtain benefits.

Jailing Hannant, of Jedburgh Avenue, Recorder Mr Edward Coke said: "Does nobody check these phone calls? She can just phone and say 'We've adopted two twins and they are disabled'. I just find it absolutely mindboggling."

Mr Ben Mills, who was defending, said that the scam had been "frighteningly easy and tempting" for Hannant, who was "utterly ashamed of herself".