Legal News
Pension Scam Woman Ordered To Repay £158,000 (2 November 2011)
Date: 02/11/2011
A woman who claimed a pension following her husband’s faking of his own death has been the subject of a £158,000 confiscation order. Forty-three-year-old Sophie Sanchez was handed a two-year jail sentence in December 2010 for defrauding a Marlow branch of HMV in which her husband, Alfredo, was employed as a web designer up until 2004. HMV paid for Mrs. Sanchez's travel cost after she informed bosses at the store that Alfredo had died in South America. The company also handed Mrs. Sanchez a lump sum payment from her husband’s pension package. The Sanchez family, including ‘deceased’ Alfredo, had, in fact, relocated to Costa Rica.
Mrs. Sanchez, a former Surrey resident, admitted to six counts of deception. At the Oxford Crown Court confiscation hearing, Simon Heptonstall, senior crown advocate, claimed that his priority was to ensure that fraudsters failed to enjoy the benefits brought about as a result of their crimes and that the victims of crime were adequately compensated. In the event that Mrs. Sanchez fails to meet the cost of her £158,000 confiscation order within a six-month period, she will be handed an additional 26 months to her jail term and will remain liable to meet the cost of the confiscation order on her release. HMV was awarded the confiscated money. Suspicions of Mrs. Sanchez’s fraudulent pension claims came to light when her husband’s fingerprints were found on his own death certificate. Alfredo is believed to have fled to Australia.
Duncan Lewis’ criminal law solicitors represent clients facing charges of deception at police stations and courts of law across the UK.