Brit ‘mum on the run’ jailed after flaunting £2k

A TikTok ‘mum on the run’ who flaunted her luxury lifestyle in Thailand while boasting about fraudulently claiming £2,300 a month in UK benefits, has been jailed

A notorious Brit TikTok “mum on the run” who boasted about claiming benefits while living it up in Thailand has been jailed for more than two years. Ellis Matthews, 35, shot to online fame after fleeing Britain while pregnant and documenting her “dream life” in South-East Asia to thousands of followers.

The mum-of-one, from Bamber Bridge, openly shared tips on how to claim benefits from abroad – claiming she was raking in £2,300 month while living overseas with her newborn son. But her sunshine lifestyle soon came crashing down.

Last summer, Matthews was arrested by immigration officials in Thailand and locked up in what she described as a “hell hole prison” crawling with rats and cockroaches.

She told followers she was detained after authorities raised concerns about her child’s welfare. Her visa was cancelled and she spent 15 weeks behind bars in a Bangkok detention centre before being deported back to the UK – leaving her young son behind with family.

Within weeks of returning to Lancashire last June, Matthews was arrested over drugs offences. She later admitted supplying cocaine, as well as possessing cocaine and cannabis. At Preston Crown Court on Friday (March 13), Matthews was jailed for 26 months.

She will serve her sentence at HMP Styal, with 108 days already spent in a Thai jail counted towards her time behind bars.

Matthews’ case has underscored just how fraudsters can exploit the system, officials state. Claiming UK benefits while living abroad is generally illegal beyond a set period, typically four to eight weeks, depending on the benefit.

However, Matthews and others have found ways to circumvent these rules. Common tactics include maintaining a UK bank account and a correspondence address, often at a relative’s home, to give the impression they remain resident in Britain.

The system has also historically relied heavily on claimants self-reporting changes in circumstances, such as moving overseas, which can be easily manipulated. In Matthews’ case, she claimed disability benefits, asserting she suffered from six mental disorders requiring taxpayer-funded treatment.

Benefit fraud and error cost the UK an estimated £9.5 billion in the 2024–2025 financial year, representing 3.3% of total welfare spending. A 2025 investigation revealed that thousands of people—2,600 in a single pilot—were found to be illegally claiming Child Benefit while living overseas.

Under the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025, banks are now required to flag accounts that exhibit signs of the account holder living abroad, such as consistent overseas transactions. Authorities are also matching benefit records against international travel data and can request information from airlines to verify how long claimants have been out of the country.

In addition, new specialist teams comprising over 200 investigators have been established to focus specifically on rooting out “abroad fraud”, signalling a much tougher stance on those seeking to exploit the system.

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