A MOTHER-OF-TWO who fleeced friends and family out of about £160,000 in a bogus compensation scam has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Joanne Maddison claimed she needed money to mount a multi-million pound unfair dismissal claim against furniture retailer MFI.

Yesterday, Recorder Graham Hyland, sentencing, said Maddison engaged in an elaborate deception which was mean, wicked, prolonged and had an enormous effect on her victims.

He told her: “In most cases, if not all, you’ve effectively ruined their lives and left them in grave, severe financial circumstances.

In addition to that, many of them, not surprisingly, are emotionally wrecked as a result of your dishonesty.”

Maddison created a web of lies to con cash from loved ones in her home village of Langley Park, near Durham City, on the promise of a bumper payout when she won her case.

The 42-year-old took life savings, wrecked credit ratings and deceived mortgage and loan companies. One victim cashed in an ISA and borrowed money from friends to help her, while another remortgaged her home.

Maddison falsely told one woman that an MFI manager had died in custody, leaving a note declaring her innocent, and told another that there was police corruption.

She kept diaries so she could remember the lies she was telling, and even her husband of nearly 20 years, Shaun, was taken in by her story.

Maddison’s scam began after she was convicted of stealing £810 from MFI in Durham City, in July 2002. She indicated to friends that she was mounting a legal challenge for unfair dismissal, David Crook, prosecuting, told Durham Crown Court.

Her lies caught up with her when her victims became suspicious and called the police.

Maddison, recently of Orchard Street, Pelton, Chesterle- Street, admitted nine charges of fraud and obtaining money by deception and asked for 12 further matters to be taken into consideration.

The charges date from March 2005 to October 2008.

Tony Davis, for Maddison, told the judge: “You are faced with a shell of a woman. She’s a carcass of her former self, clearly wracked with guilt. A woman who’s so ashamed that she cannot look anyone in the eye; and her contrition is utterly complete. She apologises to every victim.”

He added: “Many people’s lives have been affected by her and that’s the shame she will carry with her to her grave.”

Maddison had experienced personal discomfort and depression, he said, and her fraud was simple, she was not a professional scamster and was unlikely to do it again.