A SHAMELESS couple forced their healthy daughter to use a wheelchair for four years so they could scrounge benefits.
Louise Law, 50, and Martin Law, 54, “fabricated illnesses” to NHS workers and teachers to carry out the elaborate scam.
MEN MediaLouise Law has been jailed for faking her daughter’s so-called illnesses[/caption]
The former couple forced the seven-year-old girl into a wheelchair in 2021 – causing her “gratuitous degradation”.
She was bullied at school and deprived of an ordinary childhood, Hull Crown Court was told.
Law has now been jailed for six years and nine months after admitting child cruelty, Hull Daily Mail reports.
Her ex-husband was ruled unfit to enter a plea but was convicted of the same offence.
Between 2012 and 2017, the couple both “fabricated illnesses and exaggerated symptoms” over their daughter’s health.
This meant the girl was put through “unnecessary medical procedures”.
She was also given unnecessary medication and was made to play the role of a “sick and disabled child”.
The court was told the youngster, who is now 18, was put into foster care aged 12.
She told how her parents forced her to attend a few medical appointments at first but this soon spiralled into around 30 hospital consultations -including overnight stays.
The girl said her mum and dad would do all the talking but she was advised to complain about feeling extremely ill and tired.
Meanwhile, the scrounging pair raked in disability benefits and were given a free mobility car – although the true amount they received was not revealed in court.
Their home was also adapted with grab rails at the expense of the taxpayer and the girl had to undergo physiotherapy.
Prosecutor Louise Reevell told the court: “[The] parents made them think that they could not walk properly.
“They would go to school in a wheelchair but they didn’t really need it.”
Once she was put into foster care, the girl “appeared to make a miraculous recovery and did not require a wheelchair”.
Mrs Reevell added: “She stopped taking medication and started behaving like a normal, healthy child.”
I missed out on doing the normal things that other boys and girls were doing at break time.
Heartbroken victim
The scam came to a head in 2017 when the authorities began to suspect the Laws were pretending their daughter was sick.
In a statement, the girl said: “My parents would tell me that I couldn’t walk properly and I had a limp.
“I missed out on doing PE. I missed out on doing the normal things that other boys and girls were doing at break time. PE was something I enjoyed doing.
“The wheelchair became a barrier to make relationships and friendships. I have not had the opportunity to do the ordinary childhood things that people with ordinary parents did.
“I could not have part-time jobs like other people have the opportunity to do.
“I have no idea why my mother would do this other than they wanted money. I have a plan for the future to get better. I am on the road to recovery now.
“It was wrong what my parents did and I deserve to be well. My parents should have cared for me and treated me like a daughter should be.”
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