A FRAUDSTER and his wife who tried to avoid justice for two years after pretending he was in a coma have both been locked up jailed.
Alan Knight had claimed he was too ill to stand trial after swindling a frail 86-year-old man with dementia out of his £41,000 life savings as well as changing the pensioner’s will.
He and wife Helen concocted a “cock and bull story”, saying the 48-year-old was in a vegetative state after suffering a massive neck injury.
Swansea Crown Court heard the pair went to extraordinary lengths to try to derail his trial.
As well as admitting Knight to hospital – where he spent a total of 10 weeks and was subjected to several expensive tests – the couple arrived at court with him pretending to be unconscious while his 34-year-old wife pushed him in a wheelchair.
A judge was also told they managed to fool their local Labour MP into backing their case and invited local journalists into their specially-adapted home while Knight was photographed “in a coma”.
However, one officer tracked the couple over years and caught Knight driving his car on one of several family holidays and riding on Dodgems at a fair.
Judge Huw Davies jailed Alan Knight for 14 months. Helen Knight was also handed an immediate prison sentence of 10 months. She sobbed uncontrollably after she was taken down to the cells.
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