1:35pm Monday 22nd March 2010
A WOMAN who was brought up in Blackburn and used multiple identities to claim £197,000 in benefits and disability payments to fund an extravagant lifestyle has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.
Marianne Jonson was born a male called Robert Duxbury in Blackburn in 1960.
The court heard the 49-year-old, who later lived in Wembley in London, had previously been known by 10 other names, including The Countess Mariaska Romanov.
During the trial, at Brent Crown Court in London, it emerged she had falsified medical assessment forms, benefit applications, financial returns and a range of other documentation.
She also claimed she was paraplegic, but was recorded working in a cafe and walking her dogs.
The court was told she also claimed one of her alter-egos was her twin sister.
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