Benefits cheat mum said she had severe MS while posting about running 10k races

A mum-of-three convicted of exaggerating her disability to claim more than £22,000 in benefits has been ordered to repay the money.

Sara Morris, 50, who has Multiple Sclerosis, said it left her struggling with balance and too weak to stand at the cooker or get out of the bath without help.

She also said she suffered anxiety leaving the house which left her in tears after a trip to the pharmacy to collect medication.

But photos Morris posted to her Facebook account showed her regularly running 5km and 10km races as part of the Stone Master Marathoners club in her home town of Stone, Staffordshire.

Investigators carried out surveillance over a 15-day period in 2023 and saw her running twice, including in a five-mile race, which she completed ‘without assistance and showed no signs of balance problems’.

Further checks confirmed she had taken part in 73 races between May 2019 and December 2022.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard Morris was diagnosed with MS in 2005.

Last year she pleaded guilty to dishonestly making a false statement to obtain a benefit in 2020, and was jailed for eight months.

She was found to have been overpaid £20,528.83 between October 2020 and April 2023, benefiting from the false statement to the tune of £22,386.02 in total.

Multiple Sclerosis symptoms vary widely from patient to patient, and in some cases can disappear completely before coming back in a relapse.

When interviewed in May 2023, Morris said her MS had worsened.

She admitted to being a member of the running club, a fact she did not mention in her benefits claim, but said she filled out the form on her ‘worst day’.

Paul Cliff, mitigating, said Morris’ marriage had broken down in early 2020 and that ‘she lost her home because of financial problems and was struggling to keep her head above water financially’.

He said the ‘severity of [Morris’ condition] ebbs and flows to a degree’, adding: ‘But it is accepted by her that the application did not give the full picture.

‘It crossed over into the realms of dishonesty.

‘The application did not give the full picture. She did say running was one of the ways she tried to manage her MS.

‘She has found it difficult to come to terms with her dishonesty.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.