Crime? No, it was state benefits that funded my luxury life: Fraudster's wife took £72,000 from taxpayer



Lisa Lowndes received £18,000 a year in welfare payments for four years



38-year-old and her husband Colin, 41, went on holiday to Egypt, Zante, Tenerife, Turkey, Alicante, Universal Studios in Florida and Cyprus



Mother cruised around in fleet of rented vehicles, including Porsche Cayenne

Colin previously jailed for masterminding Britain's biggest motoring scam

Mrs Lowndes found guilty of enjoying her husband's ill-gotten gains



A WIFE accused of living a life of luxury on the proceeds of her husband’s criminal empire has insisted she paid for everything herself – with her state benefits.

Jobless mother-of-four Lisa Lowndes took at least two luxury holidays every year and drove a fleet of high-performance cars.

But the 38-year-old claimed in court that she funded it all with a generous package of state handouts.

Lisa Lowndes, right, who claimed state benefits footed the bill for her lavish lifestyle when denying charges she profited from her husband (pictured) Colin's motoring scam

Flashy: Colin Lowndes pictured in his Porsche Boxster, one of the luxury cars he was able to drive using illegally obtained money which his wife also benefited from

The court heard that she received welfare payments of almost £18,000 a year over four years, adding up to some £72,000 of taxpayers’ cash.

In that time, she enjoyed ten five-star holidays, including a £3,000 break in Alicante, a £2,700 getaway to Zante and a £2,400 trip to Egypt.



While away on her trips she would cruise around in rented top-of-the-range vehicles, including a £70,000 Porsche Cayenne.

But detectives found Lowndes was actually funding her lifestyle with the ill-gotten gains of her husband’s fraud, and she was convicted of 11 offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act

Her husband Colin, 41, masterminded Britain’s biggest motoring scam, in which he charged drivers up to £400 a time to dodge speeding points. Earlier this year he was sentenced to seven years for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and 30 charges of fraud.

In 2002, the serial conman was behind a £450,000 scam to illegally obtain goods from catalogues by rifling through bins for discarded credit card slips and then quoting the card numbers and expiry dates to place telephone orders.

In 1999, Lowndes had used the same trick to buy jewellery worth up to £250,000 from Sky Television’s QVC shopping channel.

Despite living in a terrace house on a council estate in Hattersley, Greater Manchester, Lowndes would be seen cruising around in a £120,000 Bentley Continental, a £115,000 red Ferrari Spider and a £67,000 Range Rover Sport.

At Manchester Crown Court his wife denied charges of living off the proceeds of crime, claiming her lifestyle was financed entirely by her state benefits.

Mrs Lowndes said she had pocketed so much money because of her state benefits, after her husband, pictured in his Range Rover, was jailed for Britain's biggest motoring scam Cruising: Mr Lowndes in his Bentley which he could afford due to his motoring scam

Whilst on Mrs Lowndes' jaunts she would cruise around in a fleet of vented vehicles. Picture is her husband in a red Ferarri

But Judge Roger Thomas QC told her: ‘You were leading a cosy lifestyle to put it at its least – you were running a car and there were umpteen holidays.



Your family were a good deal better off than many other families I come across, and you made great play to the jury as to how generous state benefits were in your direction.

‘Unpaid work seems a just punishment because honest work is something you have done very little of.’

He sentenced her to 180 hours of unpaid work and 12 months in prison suspended for two years.



He imposed a six-month curfew, but spared her from jail because of the detrimental effect it would have on the couple’s four children.

Colin Lowndes, left, was jailed for seven years for conspiring to pervert the course of justice and 30 charges of fraud and Lee Foster, right, Lisa's brother, who was jailed for 18 months for conspiring to pervert the course of justice



The couple pictured on their wedding day. Mrs Lowndes was spared jail for the sake of their children

Police Constable Vaughan Davies, from Greater Manchester Police, said: ‘Neither Colin nor Lisa had any source of legitimate income yet lived the kind of lifestyle many others can only dream of.

‘We found no evidence of Lisa having worked a day in her life and while many decent hardworking people have been feeling the pinch and are struggling to make ends meet, she was living it up, enjoying sun-drenched holidays a number of times a year.’

Her brother Lee Derek Foster, 40, of Hyde, was convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and was jailed for 18 months.

The couple could afford ten foreign holidays in just four years