A man has been sentenced to prison for pretending he was in a coma – for two years – to avoid standing trial for fraud. She was jailed for 10 months at Swansea Crown Court.
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Meanwhile, his wife wrote to the prime minister, the deputy prime minister and her local MP, telling them her husband was being forced to go to court even though he was a paraplegic and in a permanent vegetative state.
The couple are pictured together on Aberystwyth Promenade.
Judge Huw Davies jailed Alan Knight for 14 months.
Knight was spotted posing for snaps with wife Helen at a wedding in Gloucester, drinking beer in a pub and touring Legoland in Windsor with his children.
Police found he had forged the will using the names of two women from a newspaper obituary section as witnesses. His wife was granted bail at a previous hearing.
Before adjourning proceedings ahead of sentencing, Judge Heywood said: “I previously made strong comments about this cock and bull story which was being presented to the court – which he (Mr Knight) now accepts was false”.
However, hospital doctors reported incidents when cups of water at Alan’s bedside “magically disappeared” in the night.
“Knight and his wife continued to see various doctors claiming he was housebound, comatose and unable to communicate”. The couple’s local MP supported their case.
His 34-year-old wife also pleaded guilty but planned to submit a “basis of plea” application.
However, detectives managed to prove there was absolutely nothing wrong with Knight after tracing his Tesco Clubcard before obtaining CCTV footage of him freely walking around in the supermarket.
James Hartson, defending, said the pair’s lies were a “pathetic charade”.
He added what happened was a “pathetic charade”.
“She lied because she loved her husband and both were frightened of the possibility of him being jailed”.
In 2014, the con man was sentenced to four years in prison for forgery, fraud and theft.
“It was an insult to those who really do suffer from such conditions and a calculated one”.
He said: “It resulted in significant delay in bringing the offender to justice”.
‘You also wasted NHS resources and precious time of its staff who treat genuine patients’. His wife was jailed for ten months.
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Judge Davies also gave a formal commendation to Det Con Harry – telling the officer: ‘If it was not you this case may not have come to the proper conclusion that it did’.
