A Holland and Barrett shop worker staged an £8,000 store raid with her boyfriend before trying to claim compensation for the ordeal.
Patricia Marlborough, 28, said she was terrorised by a knife-wielding man while she was working alone at the branch in Congleton, Cheshire.
She claimed she was forced to open the safe and that the attacker tied her hands with cable ties before fleeing with almost £8,000 in cash on August 16 2021.
Police launched an investigation, and while this was taking place, Marlborough submitted a claim for compensation to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.
But the plot began to unravel after officers were tipped off almost a year later in July 2022 that Marlborough's boyfriend, Kristian Bramah, was behind the robbery and that the two had plotted the raid.
