A WOMAN will spend Christmas behind bars after living a life of extraordinary deceit.

Her fantasy life included stealing £7,000 and fooling her boyfriend into thinking she was an air stewardess.

Stacey Simpson, 25, of Cowcliffe Hill Road, Huddersfield, claimed to be employed by Emirates Airlines when in fact she was unemployed.

Her ruse meant she was able to facilitate her relationship with two other men while continuing to live with her fireman boyfriend.

Yesterday, she was jailed for 10 weeks at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to 12 fraud charges at an earlier hearing this month.

The most serious dishonesty resulted in her fireman boyfriend, who was not named in court to spare his embarrassment, having two properties Flat 24, The Melting Point and 109 St John’s Road, Birkby, worth £250,000 cumulatively, repossessed because she failed to pay the mortgages and pocketed the money herself.

Almost as serious was her deception of Qatari international student, Abdullah Anthani.

She rented 24, The Melting Point, Firth Street, Huddersfield, to him despite knowing that it had been repossessed.

Prosecutor Howard Shaw said the hapless Mr Anthani believed the defendant was his landlord when in fact it was the fireman – referred to in court as Boyfriend Number One.

When he returned from holiday on February 19, 2011, he found the locks had been changed and he was unable to live there since it had been repossessed.

Six days later she met him and proceeded to con him out of a further £1,000 by telling him that she needed £700 for a month’s rent and £300 for mortgage arrears that didn’t exist.

When he was still unable to get into the property he phoned her and she claimed to be in Singapore working as an air hostess.

In March Mr Anthani contacted Kirklees Council and a joint investigation involving West Yorkshire Police and the Department for Work and Pensions began.

Mr Shaw said that on March 28, 2011, Simpson contacted the council to say she was going away for a few days because of all the hassle.

The court was told she had a lot on her plate – as well as her involvement in the properties mentioned, she had in the past submitted a housing benefit claim for 19 Waverley Terrace, Marsh, a love nest where Boyfriend Number Two was joint tenant.

The next day she flew to Majorca with Boyfriend Number Three – the day on which police turned up to her home, Flat 26, The Melting Point where she had been living with Boyfriend Number One.

In all, over a period spanning 14 months, she deceitfully obtained £6,000 in a combination of housing benefit, job seekers allowance and council tax as well as £1,000 from Mr Anthani.

In mitigation, Sonia Kidd, said Simpson’s actions had resulted in causing tensions within her family, specifically with her sister and her father, Geoff Simpson.

She said: “She has no-one to support her. It is an incredibly difficult situation she has placed herself in.”

Jailing Simpson for 10 weeks, the chairman of the bench, Margaret Atkinson, said: “These were multiple offences of fraud. They were aggravated in that they were pre-meditated over a significant period of time.”

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