Mamă și soră ale unui star de snooker anchetate pentru fraudă la beneficii de 200 de mii de lire în contextul unui proces privind casa de familie de 500 de mii de lire

A professional snooker player’s mother and sister are set to be reported after a family court feud ended with a judge finding they carried out a 19-year-long £200,000 benefits fraud.World No. 37 Matthew Selt and his sisters, Claire Noble and Charlotte Hamblin, were sued by their mother, Susan Hickenbotham, over claims they ganged up to ‘coerce’ her into signing away ownership of their £500,000 family home in Essex, which had been her home since 1998.While the home was originally owned by the sportsman’s father, Michael Selt, Ms Hickenbotham said she secured the property after their split in 2000 with a £7,500 down-payment, with her own father later clearing the remaining mortgage.But Central London County Court heard conflicting accounts of the home’s legal standing as Ms Hickenbotham maintains that while her daughter, Ms Noble, holds the legal title, she remains the true beneficiary.Mrs Hickenbotham sued after her children served her with an eviction notice to force her out of the house, claiming her signature on a deed she signed in 2019, handing all interest in the property to her daughter, Ms Noble, was obtained by ‘coercion, duress and undue influence’ and that she was ‘bullied’ into signing ‘by her children’.Judge Simon Monty today threw her claim out, declaring that the deed was valid, but handed Mrs Hickenbotham a 10 per cent share of the property’s value due to cash she put in when it was bought.However, he went on to find that both Mrs Hickenbotham and Ms Noble had been involved in a massive housing benefit scam between 2000 and 2019, which had resulted in over £200,000 being paid to the mother. The judge found that up until 2019, Mrs Hickenbotham had been the real beneficial owner of the house, meaning 19 years of housing benefit payments claimed by Mrs Hickenbotham to be paid to Ms Noble as landlady had been obtained through ‘fraud’. World No. 37 Matthew Selt (pictured) and his sisters, Claire Noble and Charlotte Hamblin, were sued by their mother, Susan Hickenbotham, over claims they ganged up to ‘coerce’ her into signing away ownership of their £500,000 family home in Essex. However, Ms Hickenbotham’s claims were thrown out However, the judge went on to find that both Mrs Hickenbotham (pictured) and Ms Noble had been involved in a massive housing benefit scam between 2000 and 2019, which had resulted in over £200,000 being paid to the mother The judge found that up until 2019, Mrs Hickenbotham had been the real beneficial owner of the house, and as such had been fraudulently claiming housing benefit for 19 years be paid to Ms Noble (pictured) as landlady had been obtained through ‘fraud’.’It was not a genuine tenancy but a sham, created and maintained for the purpose of presenting Susan as a tenant when both Susan and Claire knew that Susan occupied the property as of right,’ said the judge.’It was entered into to deceive the local authority into providing Susan with housing benefit to pay for the mortgage.’Sus