A jet-setting divorcee who flaunted her luxury holidays on Facebook while falsely claiming to be penniless and gaming over £40,000 on benefits has avoided jail.
Susan Pearson, 58, from Platt Bridge, Wigan, was dubbed ‘Miss Holiday’ by friends due to her endless exotic getaways, which included sun-soaked trips to Tunisia, Cyprus, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, and Tenerife – plus a Mediterranean cruise.
The globetrotting fraudster, whose travels were so frequent friends joked she racked up ‘more air miles than Air Force One’, claimed she was broke and unemployed while secretly stashing more than £40,000 across two savings accounts.
In total, Pearson pocketed £40,334.21 in Universal Credit over five years and bagged a £536.22 discount on her council tax by lying on forms about her financial situation.
Welfare officials caught her after a data match revealed she held undeclared savings with Nationwide and a Co-Funds investment account with one lump sum withdrawal totalling £13,000.
Pearson, who now claims £55 per week in carer’s allowance to look after her 83-year-old mother, tried to justify the cash by telling investigators she’d spent some of it on ‘windows, roof repair and a door’.
But social media painted a different picture. In one post about an upcoming Mediterranean trip, Pearson joked: ‘About time – not had a holiday since last week.’
Friends chimed in with disbelief. ‘Where are you now? More air miles than Airforce 1,’ one quipped.
Susan Pearson, 58, from Platt Bridge, Wigan, was dubbed ‘Miss Holiday’ by friends due to her endless exotic getaways
The globetrotting fraudster, whose travels were so frequent friends joked she racked up ‘more air miles than Air Force One’, claimed she was broke and unemployed
In total, Pearson pocketed £40,334.21 in Universal Credit over five years and bagged a £536.22 discount on her council tax by lying on forms about her financial situation
Another said: ‘I think she’s won the lottery n not telling us pal,’ while a third asked: ‘Do you have a secret sugar daddy?’ One even wrote: ‘Miss Holiday living up to your name. Miss Holiday is as Miss Holiday does.’
Appearing at Bolton Crown Court, Pearson admitted two charges of dishonestly failing to disclose information. She was ordered to use all of her savings to repay the money she stole but was spared prison.
The court heard she could have faced up to two years in jail under sentencing guidelines. She broke down in tears as the judge told her she would walk free.
Judge Nicholas Clarke KC told her: ‘I am sure you are thoroughly ashamed of yourself to be in the dock at that age. But I do not want you to remain in the anxious state that I can see you are in so I want you to know you are not going to prison today. But you will need to make arrangements to pay the compensation.’
He added: ‘In my judgment that should be sufficient to let her start again… The thing is, at 58, she has lost her good name. She admitted the matter as soon as she could before the courts.’
‘Life took a turn she has found difficult to deal with. She will pay the money back but she would be well advised to have that transferred as soon as it can be achieved and go straight around and make such a claim for assistance as is appropriate, as long as she is honest about her means.’
Earlier, prosecutor Ellie Watson told the court: ‘On May 21, 2018, the defendant submitted an online application to claim Universal Credit saying she was single, unemployed and that she had no savings, income, investments or other capital.’
Welfare officials caught her after a data match revealed she held undeclared savings with Nationwide and a Co-Funds investment account
Appearing at Bolton Crown Court, Pearson admitted two charges of dishonestly failing to disclose information
‘The Department for Work and Pensions later received information from a data match that the defendant held an account with Nationwide and an investment account with Co-Funds which had not been declared on her application form despite agreeing that she had provided all the information.’
‘It was identified that she held two accounts with Nationwide which showed capital above the permitted limit of £16,000. Statements of transactions were supplied for both the accounts and are seen to have far in excess of the permitted limit, reaching up to £40,616.37.’
Pearson was also shown to have fraudulently claimed council tax reduction from April 2023 by again claiming she had no assets.
In mitigation, defence lawyer Martin Pizzey said: ‘The defendant is rather overwhelmed by what is going on around her but she wants me to stress that she knows she did something wrong. She now has the one account from which she is living.
‘I would describe this defendant as rather fragile and she was very worried and frightened by the whole process. It appears that when her marriage broke down, through no fault of her own she was not prepared for the single life.
Pearson, who now claims £55 per week in carer’s allowance to look after her 83-year-old mother, tried to justify the cash by telling investigators she’d spent some of it on ‘windows, roof repair and a door’
The court heard she could have faced up to two years in jail under sentencing guidelines. She broke down in tears as the judge told her she would walk free
‘She has no siblings, only her mother survives and she has no children. She has tried to pay the money to the DWP and they have refused to take it and are instead taking a small deduction from her carer’s allowance. She has substantial responsibility looking for her mother.’
Pearson, speaking from the dock, said: ‘I do not understand these things – I am not very bright.’
The judge noted she brought with her a passport-style book showing a savings balance of £40,436.79 as of November 2024.
The case comes as new figures this week revealed Universal Credit claims have reached record levels – soaring from 6.9 million last July to over 8 million today.
