A woman who claimed she was too ill to work and suffered from agoraphobia has been jailed for 12 months after travelling the world on £50,000 falsely claimed benefits.
Tracy Johnson, who told authorities she was too ill to work or leave the house, used her benefits money on a four-month trip to India, six-month stay in Argentina and shopping trips to New York and Madrid.
The former model, who enjoyed a ‘champagne lifestyle’ while writing travel guides, was jailed for a year by Merthyr Tydfil crown court. She had previously told officials she could not walk more than 5m without assistance. A court also heard she spent six months working in sunny Argentina as a tour guide while receiving cold winter payments.
As well as holiday snaps from social media and bank drafts showing activity in each of the hot spots, Johnson's Facebook posts were read out to court, including a message saying:
"I am one spoilt girl. Early lunch in the Himalaya Spa. Lunch here would be two weeks' wages in India."
The Crown Prosecution Service said that Johnson's case was 'one of the worst examples of benefit fraud that we have seen.'
Johnson was convicted of 13 charges - including fraud, dishonestly making a false representation and dishonestly failing to notify a change in circumstances between January 2008 and July 2012.
Image via Metro
