Fraudster faked Manchester arena attack daughter to make insurance claim

A woman who pretended to have a daughter who was seriously injured in the Manchester Arena attack in order to get money has been jailed.

Susan Pain, 51, claimed £139,000 through 31 fraudulent insurance claims over seven years.

She was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court to two years in prison for two counts of fraud.

Pain, from Kirkby, Merseyside, was caught after her final claim, in which she said she had a daughter named Sophie who had sustained serious injuries in the arena attack on 22 May last year.

Twenty-two people died after Islamist terrorist Salman Abedi detonated a homemade bomb as people were leaving Manchester Arena following a concert by American singer Ariana Grande.

Abedi also died in the attack, which was the first suicide bombing in Britain since the July 2005 London atrocities.

Judge Alan Conrad QC said the public would be "shocked" that Pain used "a tragedy which shook the nation as the basis for a fraudulent claim".

Pain had worked for insurance broker Money Medical Management - which sold policies underwritten by AXA - since she was 16, the court heard.

Her job involved providing insurance for medical professionals to cover unexpected loss of earnings.

During the period between January 2010 and August 2017, she made claims under the names of friends and family members.

In one claim, she said her friend's seven-year-old son had leukaemia, while another said her niece's elderly mother was housebound after a fall.

In July last year, she claimed for £2,500, reporting a loss of earnings after her daughter had been in intensive care following the arena attack.

Pain also said that her daughter had to undergo major operations.

Judge Conrad told her: "In some cases you used false documents in support of claims and such was the trust in which you were held they were never challenged."

Michael Bagley, defending Palin, said the defendant was still in debt, despite the fraudulent claims.

"How she got to this point is still fundamentally difficult to understand," he said.

He added that her greatest punishment would be "social ruin".

Detective Constable Ant Andrews, of City of London Police's Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department, which investigated the claims, said Pain "exploited the tragic terror attack" to make a financial gain.

"She is now paying a significant price for her fraudulent activity," he said.

Carolyn Scott, head of household and lifestyle at AXA Insurance, said: "Ms Pain took advantage of a position of trust to deceive her employer and defraud AXA.

"She used details of extremely upsetting events and circumstances to make fraudulent claims for her own personal gain."