8 2GN The Sunday Times May 1, 2022NEWS
In the village of Weston in Hertfordshire,
neighbours could not help but notice the
daily stream of Amazon packages arriv-
ing at one house.
There were also the nice cars parked
on the drive. Until one day a skip
appeared, and villagers say they saw
dozens of items, including bikes and
computers, being thrown in.
The house, in an area where similar
properties have sold for half a million
pounds, belonged to Laura and Philip
Borrell. Last week the couple were con-
victed for their part in what is believed to
be one of the largest frauds against a local
authority. Laura’s mother, Frances
Noble, was also involved.
Over 12 years Noble, 66, had faked a
neurological condition, claiming
£733,936.20 in a care package from the
local authority, St Albans crown court
was told. However, instead of spending
the funds on Noble’s health, they “kept
the money for themselves”, the local
newspaper, The Comet, reported.
Neighbours say that although Laura
did not appear to work, they saw endless
packages arrive. “Delivery vans all day
long,” one said. “Ordering lots of stuff,
like money was no object.”
Another said: “There were Amazon
vans coming every single day. And then
this brand new top-of-the-range Volvo
arrived. You started thinking, what does
he do? What does she do?”
The Borrells and Noble, who have
been living in Germany for the past few
years, will be sentenced next month.
Hertfordshire county council began a
fraud investigation after carers became
suspicious that the pensioner was exag-
gerating the extent of her needs.
The couple were accused of assisting
Noble by laundering the proceeds of herLaura and Philip
Borrell appeared
on ITV’s This
Morning in 2017.
She told Holly
Willoughby and
Phillip Schofield
that she had
dementia aged 39KEN MCKAY/ITV/SHUTTERSTOCKcrime and were due to stand trial last
week. However, the Borrells entered
guilty pleas days before the case was due
to begin. Noble had pleaded guilty
earlier.
This is not the first time the family have
found themselves in the spotlight.
In 2017 Laura, then 39, sat on the sofa
on ITV’s This Morning. The presenters,
Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield,
described her as “one of the youngest
people to be diagnosed with fronto-
temporal dementia”.
Willoughby said how “scary” the diag-
nosis must have been. “Whilst I can be an
ambassador and get the word out,” Laura
told them, “that’s exactly what I want to
do.”
She received sympathy from around
the world. A fundraising page set up to
raise money for a trip to America, on the
website GoFundMe, raised almost
£7,000.
Five years on, the fundraising plat-
forms the Borrells used is investigating —
it is understood that Hertfordshire coun-
cil had passed on concerns discovered as
part of its inquiry.
Among those who knew the couple,
suspicions had been mounting for sometime. Despite her reported dementia
diagnosis, Laura Borrell had been study-
ing for a law degree, playing the flute and
driving, and she was often seen out with
the dogs, those who knew her claimed.
Her uncle John O’Sullivan, 71, a retired
chef from Stevenage, questioned his
niece’s condition last week.
At O’Sullivan’s mother’s funeral, in
October 2018, Laura played the flute in
tribute to her grandmother.
“It’s just unbelievable,” he said. “For
someone to get up at my mum’s funeral in
the church to play a flute, expertly play
the flute ... someone who had dementia
couldn’t do that,” he argued.
O’Sullivan believes the couple cared
only about money. “She always drove
nice cars, Mercedes and things like that,”
he said.
About three years ago the Borrells
packed up. “The skip arrived, and the
things that went into the skip, I can’t tell
you,” a villager said. “There were bikes;
there were computers.”
The items being thrown away were
reported to be so valuable that other
villagers ended up salvaging them.
Although a buyer was found for the
house, the sale fell through after theyA special edition
Barbie doll of the
Queen and a
royal Marmite jar
are among the
items that will be
on display in the
exhibitionCelebrate the Queen’s jubilee
with a blue-blood Barbie
For the Queen’s coronation in
1953, Robert Opie, then aged
five, created a scrapbook
filled with “Long Live the
Queen” milk bottle tops and
sweet wrappers for a school
project. He won first prize.
He never stopped
collecting. This year, the
Museum of Brands is putting
on an exhibition of his items,
Jubilation: 200 Years of Royal
Souvenirs, which opens on
May 21. It is not just
commemorative mugs, coins
and wedding plates. Opie,
now 75 and known as the
“supermarket archaeologist”,
saves everything from cereal
boxes to 10,000 yoghurt pots
dating back to the 1960s and
biscuit wrappers.
The exhibition will include
crown-shaped chicken nugget
packaging from Iceland, HP’s
“Salad Queen” and “HM
Sauce”, a rotating musical
biscuit tin from M&S and the
first ever Barbie Queen by
Mattel released to celebrate
her 70 years on the throne.
Only 20,000 have been
produced worldwide, and it is
already sold out despite
costing £94.99.
One of the curator Amy
Dobson’s favourites is a
periscope produced by Hovis
for children so they could
peer over the crowds to see
the royal procession in 1953.
It is a tiny fraction of Opie’s
vast collection, which
numbers more than 500,
pieces, only some of
which are royal, most of
them stored in a 4,
sq ft warehouse in
Hampshire that he pays
thousands of pounds for
in rent each year.
Each week he
scours the
supermarkets
looking out for
new items. “It’s
an awful
existence,” he
says. And costly —
especially these
days. “Everything
has a dual role in my
life.”Jenny CoadFraudster family
faked illness to scam
council of £734,
Hannah Al-Othman and William Noah
Glucroft, in BerlinAmazon deliveries arrived every day at their house ‘like money was no object’
MATTEL/AFP/GETTY IMAGESwere advised that the vendors were the
subjects of a fraud case.
Neighbours never saw Laura again —
but Philip occasionally came back to
check on the house. When, about two
years ago, neighbours asked after Laura,
he is alleged to have told them she had
resumed her law degree.
The family settled in Karolinenhof, a
district of woods and lakes in Berlin’s
outermost eastern suburbs.
In Weston many remember a fund-
raising coffee morning. “I think they
went first class to America,” a neighbour
said.
Unan Choudhury, a lawyer represent-
ing Laura, said she denied any allegation
of wrongdoing relating to the dementia.
“She has suffered with serious neurologi-
cal illnesses in the past and continues to
suffer with illnesses now,” he said. “She is
receiving specialist treatment for her
various conditions. She has no further
comment to make at this stage. I’m sure
medical issues will be discussed in open
court at her sentencing hearing.”
Although the Borrells returned to the
UK ten days ago before their court hear-
ing, Frances Noble remains in Berlin and
continues to deny wrongdoing.
She said the guilty pleas were an effort
to bring an end to a case they are running
out of money to fight.
“We’re not the dreadful people they’re
trying to make us out to be. My daughter
gave up [everything] to care for me,”
Noble said on Friday, fighting back tears.
Repeatedly comparing the family’s sit-
uation to the Post Office Horizon scandal,
regarded as the biggest miscarriage of
justice in British legal history, Noble said:
“It’s just a setup ... It’s just a complete
and utter nightmare.”
A spokesman for GoFundMe said: “If it
is established that misuse has occurred,
we will offer refunds to all donors.”
@HannahAlOthman