A pensioner labelled ‘Britain’s worst advantages cheat’ when she swindled £750,000 by hiding her father’s dying and faking dementia has been launched from jail after serving lower than half of her sentence.
Novice actress Ethel McGill, then 68, used all her thespian expertise to faux she had dementia as a part of a long-running advantages and incapacity fraud that ended along with her being jailed for 5 years and eight months in July 2019.
The dishonest OAP was even given an additional eight months on her sentence in August 2020 for failing to pay again £200,500 of her ill-gotten positive aspects underneath the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Regardless of the severity of the fraud, MailOnline can reveal that shameless McGill, now 72, was solely behind bars from July 2019 till the ‘second half of 2022.’ The Ministry of Justice confirmed her launch however declined to remark additional.
Ethel McGill, pictured, pretended she had dementia as a part of a long-running advantages and incapacity fraud that ended along with her being jailed for 5 years and eight months in July 2019

At Liverpool Crown Court docket, McGill, pictured hiding her face arriving at court docket, admitted hiding her late father Robert Dennison’s dying for 12 years so she may declare his struggle pension and advantages, regardless of the very fact he died in 2004
The case made headlines and sparked questions concerning the potential of authorities to police the advantages system when the benefit by which McGill and her household made a fortune from the rip-off grew to become obvious throughout the court docket case.
At Liverpool Crown Court docket, McGill admitted hiding her late father Robert Dennison’s dying for 12 years so she may declare his struggle pension and advantages, regardless of the very fact he died in 2004.
On one event she bought a buddy to lie underneath a blanket and faux to be him at her house in Runcorn, Cheshire.
The CPS stated on the time that it was one of many ‘largest ever circumstances of profit fraud by a single individual’.
The court docket heard McGill feigned dementia and faked mobility points for greater than 20 years however was caught out when she was filmed shifting with out help and driving regardless of saying she wanted a wheelchair.
She even appeared at court docket in a wheelchair carrying a pack of incontinence pads that she used to try to cowl her face from photographers.
Decide Steven Everett informed McGill: ‘A part of your drawback is that no person, together with me, believes that you’re ailing, and that you’ve got been placing this on for years.
‘Your devious behaviour, with little or no regret, has caught up with you and now you’ll have to pay the penalty.

Regardless of the severity of the fraud, MailOnline can reveal that shameless McGill, pictured in her youthful days, was solely behind bars from July 2019 till the ‘second half of 2022.
‘With breathtaking dishonesty you determined to make use of your father’s dying to your monetary profit, what a horrible factor to do.
‘It wasn’t even for a brief period of time – for yr after yr you, in a way, sullied your father’s title – he was entitled to a struggle pension.
‘When the authorities got here to your home to see your father you bought any individual to lie in that mattress and faux to be your aged father and you set the authorities off by persuading them to not method that individual.’
He additionally hit out at these behind the advantages system for failing to identify what was happening.
He stated: ‘The authorities might have a look at themselves and marvel how they let this occur and so they do not come out of this in any respect nicely however the entire dishonesty come all the way down to you – you probably did it.’
Her defence barrister Dan Gaskell stated she ought to get a brief sentence as a result of she by no means lived a lavish way of life.
He stated: ‘She lives in pretty straightened circumstances. There isn’t a indication that she has lived a lifetime of extra.’
Nevertheless, the decide identified that she was making ‘far more than the common individual on the street.’
Stephen Pendered, of the CPS, stated: ‘That is the biggest case of profit fraud by a single person who I’ve prosecuted.
‘Not content material with receiving her father’s pensions, housing and tax advantages underneath false pretences, Ethel McGill made good use of her newbie dramatic expertise by feigning dementia to achieve her personal fraudulent profit claims.
‘Over the course of 25 years, McGill shamelessly acquired £750,000 of public cash she knew full nicely she was not entitled to.
‘The lengths Ethel McGill and her household went via to cheat a system designed for individuals in want is actually staggering.
At a Proceeds of Crime Act listening to at Chester Crown Court docket on the tenth August 2020, McGill was given a confiscation order to the sum of £200,500.
The order said that if she didn’t pay this inside 12 weeks, she might be dedicated for an additional time period of imprisonment of eight months.
McGill, of Runcorn, Cheshire, didn’t pay and was handed the additional time, making her complete sentence six years and 6 months.
In 2019, MailOnline reported that McGill had written to the prisoners’ newspaper Inside Instances boasting how jail life was ‘nice’, and is like dwelling in a ‘little village’ – even claiming she continues to be disabled.
Writing from HMP Model, a 480-capacity ladies;s jail in Cheshire, within the November version – by which she was awarded the £25 ‘Star Letter’ prize – she stated: ‘I wished to present constructive suggestions in regard to my first time in jail.
‘I, like most, thought that going to jail was going to be horrendous, however on arriving right here at Styal I used to be informed by an officer that my punishment WAS my sentence at court docket, and so they weren’t right here to punish me additional.
‘I’m on one of many homes and it is like dwelling in a little bit village, we’ve got a magnificence salon which is coaching prisoners to turn into hairdressers and all features of the wonder commerce, which, in flip, provides them hope for the long run.
‘We even have a library, fitness center, artwork, training and knitting and stitching. The gardens and greenhouses are beautiful and manned by the prisoners.
‘I’m one of many disabled prisoners and have acquired a care-plan which follows me house when I’m launched. That is nothing just like the prisons you see on TV.’