A mother who lied about her children being ill, forcing them to have surgery as part of a plan to falsely claim benefits, has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

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The 49-year-old from Croydon, south London, told medical staff her children had asthma, autism and other health problems, meaning they were given drugs they did not need and went through invasive treatment including having tubes fitted in their stomachs. The woman’s lies, which spanned a decade, allowed her to claim more than £375,000 in benefits, before she was arrested by police in 2013.

Following a three-year investigation, the woman, who cannot be named to protect her children’s identity, was sentenced to a prison term. She was convicted last month of cruelty, fraud, making a false representation and obtaining money transfer by deception.

Addressing the woman at Croydon crown court, judge Elizabeth Smaller said: “I note that you have appeared to be very sad at times during this trial – but, watching you as I have for three months in court, in my view, it cannot be said to amount to remorse for what you did.”

Smaller said the mother, despite being made aware of all the risks of surgery, had signed the consent forms to ensure it went ahead and noted she had not been “filled with the disquiet that most parents would” have at the thought of their child undergoing such an operation.

The children, a young boy and girl, had surgery to fit them with gastrostomy tubes for feeding, despite being able to eat normally, after the woman lied to authorities to say they had stomach problems. Her son was given steroids after she claimed he suffered breathlessness and he was told to behave as though he had autism. In what the judge described as an embarrassing episode for him, he was also kept in nappies until he was taken into care aged seven-and-a-half.

The woman was determined to find another problem when it looked as though others she had created were resolved, the judge said. “The lengths to which you went were creative and well thought through,” Smaller said. “They were wilful, prolonged and sometimes elaborate. … You seem not to have been able to see past your own actions to the indignity of your children.”

Over at least 10 years, the mother presented her son and daughter to doctors and education professionals, maintaining they suffered from serious health conditions. Between October 2003 and February 2014 she falsely claimed £375,198 in disability living allowances and income support. This was despite living with her partner, who earned £38,000 a year.

She forced her children to fake symptoms of illnesses, ranging from asthma to autism and urology problems, to secure her benefits. Steroids were given to her son even though he did not have severe asthma, as she claimed. She also had her son mimic behaviour consistent with autism and, as part of the fraud, resisted attempts by the child’s nursery to toilet-train him.

The trial was the culmination of a three-year investigation. Police raided the woman’s home and arrested her in May 2013 after suspicions of fraud were raised. During the search they found a large quantity of items with an estimated cost to the NHS of £145,870, including asthma drugs and feeding equipment.

Smaller said: “Despite everything, your children still love you – that is no doubt – which makes your exploitation of their unconditional love and trust, for them, all the more serious and bewildering.”

After sentencing the woman, Smaller questioned how the situation had been allowed to go on for 10 years. She said: “It is a matter of regret that such qualified and experienced medical professionals at world-renowned hospitals did not maintain better channels of communication. However busy – and knowledgeable they are in their field – they might all with hindsight have agreed that they could have learned much about this defendant from speaking to [a doctor] and each other.”

Malcolm McHaffie, deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS London, said the woman had shown extraordinary cruelty and had been motivated by dishonesty and greed. “That a mother should go to such lengths of child cruelty, spanning at least 10 years, to support the false and exaggerated benefits claims that she made is beyond comprehension,” he said.

DS Stuart Parsons said, after the woman’s sentencing on Monday: “It is staggering to think that the mother’s wilful actions resulted in the children undergoing unnecessary surgical and medical interventions. She lied at every opportunity, presenting herself as a lone parent coping with ill and vulnerable children. The reality was that she resided with her partner and fabricated her children’s conditions for personal financial gain.”