ID theft fraudster loses jail term plea

A hard-hearted fraudster who used a dead baby's identity to apply for a mortgage on a house in Shropshire has had an appeal against her jail sentence thrown out by top judges.

Georgina Sharon Murphy claimed her fragile psychological state demanded a lighter sentence.

It comes after Murphy, of Lakeholme Gardens, Oswestry, was jailed for three years at Mold Crown Court in August last year after admitting eight counts of fraud committed over a three-year period.

The total amount lost in the scams was around £250,000.

The 54-year-old siphoned tens of thousands of pounds from the estate of her deceased aunt, Stella Hand, and also secured a £160,000 mortgage from a building society using a false passport in the name of a dead baby.

She plundered about £80,000 of her aunt's wealth, after she died aged 81, said Mr Justice Spencer at a hearing at London's Criminal Appeal Court on Friday, also trying to transfer £10,000 from her account before suspicious bank officials contacted the police.

Murphy was an executor of her relative's will but never paid her funeral costs in full and 'grossly misled' other family members about her dead aunt's affairs.

Her separate offence in relation to the mortgage was committed after she secured a bogus passport using the name of a baby who had died 'within hours of birth'.

Murphy claimed the sentence ignored her fragile mental health.

Mr Justice Spencer, sitting with Lord Justice Pill and Judge Paul Batty QC, said he had read a 'plethora of reports' about her psychological state and observed: "We accept she had certain mental health problems".

But there was no suggestion that Murphy was not 'in full possession of her faculties' when she transgressed.

"These were sophisticated frauds which required her to be able to keep her eye on the ball," he said.

The sentence was not excessive, said the judge, who observed: "In our view it was moderate".