A benefits cheat who swindled the taxpayer out of £200,000 and acquired a £1 million property portfolio without "ever working a single day" has been jailed for seven years.

Angel Jackson, who had luxury homes in both Croydon and Mitcham, also claimed to need a wheelchair but was caught using a gym treadmill on CCTV.

Judge Adam Hiddleston, described her as a "vain and self-important person" with a "staggering contempt for the court".

He added: "You are a thoroughly dishonest person. You are a professional fraudster. It is your life's work.

"You have taken and taken and taken and it would appear, you have never given anything back.

"How many school places or hospital beds could have been provided by the local authorities with the money you took?"

Ghanaian Jackson, 52, even disappeared for two weeks halfway through her trial and a warrant had to be issued for her arrest.

She sometimes refused to leave the prison van to appear in court.

And she also turned up to court in a wheelchair but was rumbled when CCTV emerged of her using the treadmill at her luxury block's private gym.

Judge Adam Hiddleston told her: "True to your character, you tried to masquerade and deceive.

"This court was shown footage taken from CCTV of you walking perfectly adequately and without assistance."

Your Local Guardian:

Benefits cheat Angel Jackson swindled the taxpayer out of hundreds of thousands of pounds. 

Jackson, 52, established a complex web of lies to claim housing benefit, income support and compensation over a ten-year period between 2002 and 2012.

She claimed for properties in which she didn't live, in the names of people who didn't exist, and for accidents that didn't happen.

The prosecution even admitted that they didn't know her real name or date of birth.

Jackson was jailed after being found guilty of 32 charges relating to her ten-year fraud campaign at Croydon Crown Court.

Appearing via video link from HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, Jackson did not react as Judge Adam Hiddleston called her a "vain and self-important person".

He called the evidence against her "totally overwhelming" and said she had shown a "remarkably staggering contempt for the court".

He added: "You created numerous personalities, changed your name, created false documentation, you even deceived your own ex-husband, taking everything he had, including his dignity."

Jackson, who already owned a house in Mitcham, south London, bought two swanky flats in the same block, complete with its own gym, in Croydon in 2005 for more than £300,000, and fraudulently claimed housing benefit for each of them.

She also tried to wring every penny in compensation from two car accidents using invented passengers, only to be caught when doctors spotted two separate x-rays on two separate claims were almost identical.

Prosecutor Francesca Levett told Croydon Crown Court Jackson had lied to the local authorities and the DWP for more than a decade and defrauded the authorities out of £191,414.

She said: "Far from being an honest claimant, who turned to the authorities because she was genuinely in need, she manipulated the system, told countless lies, hijacked identities and defrauded her way into becoming an affluent property owner without ever working a single day.

Although the authhorities believe she is Ghanaian, Ms Levett told the jury: "We do not actually know the true identity of the defendant, nor do we know her true date of birth."

When her home was raided in September 2012, officers found £22,000 in £50 notes hidden in a wardrobe, reams of counterfeit paperwork and 12 mobile phones.

Jackson lured her soon-to-be husband, Irish-born Thomas Duffy, by telling him she was a "lady of traditional values", before buying a house with him in August 2002 - while still claiming housing benefit - and going behind his back to obtain his UK residency to support her own.

The pair had married on Valentine’s Day 2002, but she stopped him from telling his family and yet she didn't even allow him to live with her.

Ms Levett said: "This was very far from a happy, new marriage, as not only did Mr Duffy not live with his wife, but the marriage wasn't ever consummated."

The court heard that "whenever he needed to sign something presented to him by his wife, his glasses would disappear".

Ms Levett said: "It appears that Mr Duffy was used by his wife to purchase a property she had no intention of sharing with him."

In July 2005, Jackson bought another property, a £150,000 flat in south London, in her husband's name, without him knowing - and two months later bought another flat in the same building, this time in her own name, for £152,500.

Ms Levett said: "Not only did she fail to notify the authorities that she had purchased yet another property, but she then applied for housing benefit, claiming that she lived there and did not own her own property."

She lied to her husband that home they owned together was being repossessed and that he had to move out - all to support a claim she had made on a housing benefit form.

Ms Levett said: "Mr Duffy describes himself as so confused and afraid. He had lost everything, yet still the defendant collected his wages every week.

"He was depressed and fragile, frightened to open his door."