Con woman's jail sentence was 'deserved'

Pregnant Emma Fisher, 28, pretended she was dying in a bid to secure disabled housing and pocketed more than £8,500 from banks and insurers in a litany of audacious scams.

Her motivation was 'greed, self-gratification and a wish to fund a lifestyle which she could not otherwise afford', and she said she 'got a thrill' when she launched each new fraud.

Fisher, of Hall Lane, Tipton, was jailed for 22 months after she admitted 22 counts of fraud, and asked for 43 more to be taken into consideration, at Wolverhampton Crown Court in January.

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Mr Justice Sweeney said Fisher, formerly of Willenhall, carried out the catalogue of 'manipulative and planned' offences between September 2008 and July 2012.

He said her campaign of lies began when Fisher 'got into financial difficulty', with the bulk of the admitted offences taking place in the final 18 months of her crime spree. In January 2011, she convinced Walsall Housing Group that she was 'suffering very significant illness, likely to be terminal', and was placed in a home adapted for the disabled, the appeal judge explained.

She also lodged a fraudulent claim for £8,000 from an insurance company, on the fabricated basis that she was injured while falling over debris at the property in April, 2011, he added.

Fisher also attempted to claim sums on her pet insurance by concocting a story that her dog had been stolen, before dishonestly telling another insurer she had cancer.

She was arrested at her former home in Slater Street, Willenhall, in July 2012. Mr Justice Sweeney said that, in total, including the frauds taken into consideration, Fisher tried to obtain £95,000 from her victims.

When it came to the crimes to which she pleaded guilty, she hoped to pocket £40,804 and got away with £8,689.

"Fisher admitted that her motivation, overall, was greed, self-gratification and a wish to fund a lifestyle which she could not otherwise afford. She got, she said, a thrill as she inaugurated each fraud," the appeal judge said. Before jailing her, the crown court judge said the case involved 'manipulative fraud over a long period'.

Her barrister, Teresa Starr, argued that the crimes of her four-months pregnant client were 'persistent but not sophisticated' and were committed with a high degree of 'naievity'.

But Mr Justice Sweeney said: "This was substantial offending over a significant period of time and involved multiple frauds."

The judge pointed to the fraud where Fisher tricked her way into the property adapted for the disabled, saying she had 'deprived others who were actually deserving' of the home.

Sitting with Lord Justice Elias and Mr Justice Green, he said Fisher's jail term was 'plainly within the appropriate range'. The Appeal Court did, however, quash a £100 victim surcharge wrongly imposed on Fisher.