Three members of a family have been convicted of fraud after faking a neurological condition in an effort to claim a care package for 12-years which cost £734,000.

Husband and wife Laura and Philip Borrell, along with Mrs Borrell's mother, Frances Noble, have been convicted of committing fraud.The trio convinced Hertfordshire County Council that Ms Noble, 66, had a neurological disorder and succeed in accessing a "direct payments care package."

This cost the council £733,936.20 between the 1st of August, 2005 and November the 30th, 2018.Hertfordshire County Council began a fraud investigation after carers became suspicious that Noble was exaggerating the extent of her dementia and needs. The Borrell's were subsequently accused of assisting Noble by laundering the proceeds she had received.

The three family members were due to stand trial at St Albans Crown Court on Wednesday, April 27, after pleading not guilty in June 2020. However, they changed their please to guilty this week and are due to be sentenced on June 24th. The Borell's have been living in Germany for the past few months but have now returned to the UK.

Ms Noble has, however, remained in Berlin and continues to deny any wrongdoing.Back in 2017, Mrs Borrell appeared on This Morning to discuss her condition, as "one of the youngest people to be diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia", with hosts Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield. She would comment that: "You think that, that's it I'm not going to have a clue. I'm not going to recognise my husband, I'm not going to remember significant events.

I picked up the phone to my mum and not recognised it was my mum, those kinds of things."Mrs Borrell would go on to discuss how doctors were confused by her condition, assumed that she was too young to have dementia, and told her that she was being "hysterical". Unan Choudhury, a lawyer representing Laura, informed The Times that she denies any allegations of wrongdoing related to the dementia.He stated: "She has suffered with serious neurological illnesses in the past and continues to suffer with illnesses now. She is receiving specialist treatment for her various conditions."