A PENSIONER who masterminded one of Britain's biggest ever benefit frauds from a vault behind her wardrobe has been jailed for five years.

Blackfriars Crown Court heard today how Jean Hutchinson, aged 65, searched newspapers to steal identities of people who had emigrated to Australia. She made at least £1.8m.

From 1996 to 2006 she made claims using these false identities with the help of her cousin Ralph Dale, a 64-year-old deaf mute, who was jailed for four years.

Department of Work and Pensions investigators found Hutchinson's secret headquarters at her home above the children's charity shop, Cradle, which she ran in Shirland Road, Maida Vale in north west London.

The court heard that more than 200 identities, of which 76 had been used for claims, were found in an archive in the vault.

One of the addresses Hutchinson used to make the claims was at Churchfields Road, Beckenham.

Investigators who searched Hutchinson's home found a newsletter for the Big Brother Movement, an organisation of ex-pats who had left Britain for Australia in the 1950s.

Nearly all the names of the identities Hutchinson and Dale had used were found in the newsletter.

Hutchinson invented fake landlords and property firms to which cash could be paid without arousing suspicion.

She invested the profits from the money laundered in properties now believed to be worth up to £3m.

Police raided Hutchinson's home on July 6 in 2006 and tracked down Dale to his Halifax home where they found cash and other financial documents.

Hutchinson and Dale, both from Halifax, each admitted one count of conspiracy to defraud.

Jailing the pair, Judge Deva Pillay said: "It is obvious in my judgment that this was a pre-meditated, sophisticated and highly organised fraud with the singular aim of maximising the illicit financial rewards for you and your accomplices."