'Florence Nightingale' jailed for benefit fraud

A woman who claimed almost £43,000 in benefits while secretly working in a nursing home under the false name of Florence Nightingale was jailed today.

Dianah Woodriffe, 54, fraudulently claimed thousands of pounds of incapacity benefit, housing benefit and council tax benefit over eight years while claiming she was not physically fit enough to work.

She admitted using the name of the woman credited with founding modern nursing to mask her true identity.

While secretly working in a Leicestershire nursing home between 1999 and 2008, she claimed £35,261 in incapacity benefit, £5,754 in housing benefit and £1,772 in council tax benefit, Leicester Crown Court was told.

The mother of two from Burgess Street, Leicester, pleaded guilty on February 12 to six counts of falsely obtaining benefits and one count of failing to notify the relevant authority of a change of circumstances.

She was sentenced today to eight months' imprisonment.

Passing sentence, Recorder Graham Huston told her: "This was the deliberate and dishonest obtaining of benefits to which you knew you were not entitled...

"The fact that you were using a false name adds a degree of sophistication to (what you did).

"You must have been working under a National Insurance number that did not apply to Florence Nightingale or yourself...

"The fact you persisted in your fraud for a period of eight years using a false identity and lying to the doctors and benefits agency shows you knew exactly what you were doing."

He told her she would serve half of her sentence in custody.

Her lawyer, Steven Newcombe, said Woodriffe's first name was Florence and that she once had a relationship with a man whose surname was Nightingale.

He described her as someone who had always enjoyed a family and a working life.

He said: "She feels very great shame and very great remorse."

After the sentencing, Steve Mitchell, East Midlands fraud manager at the Department for Work and Pensions, which brought the case, said: "Benefit thieves take money intended for the most vulnerable in our society.

"Quite rightly the public get angry about such antisocial behaviour and with their support we are closing in on these thieves."