The serial fraudster had a long history of deception pretending to be a nanny, a psychologist, a surrogate mother and a child therapist under various monikers.
A new two-part documentary, Bad Nanny, which starts on BBC One on Tuesday 8 July at 10.45pm, reveals how she conned her way into people’s lives.
Samantha Cookes assumed multiple identities over the years (Photo: Alleycats TV/BBC)
Samantha Jade Cookes was born in Gloucester in 1986 and grew up there, attending secondary school in the city.
The child died on the day she was due to be given up for adoption. She has had two further children since then who are not in her care.
She was prosecuted for fraud, ordered to pay £1,890 to the couple and given a nine-month suspended sentence.
As Lucy Hart, she was a “Mary Poppins-like au pair” at a family home in County Offaly but then disappeared without a trace.
When they discovered Lucy wasn’t who she said she was, she fled.
She was convicted and received a 14-week jail term, which was suspended.
She was awarded funding from the Arts Council and her media profile grew.
But when one of her TikTok posts about being discriminated against went viral, some people started to question the validity of her claims and her identity.
Samantha Cookes adopted the persona of nanny, child therapist, psychologist and surrogate mother (Photo: Alleycats TV/BBC)
How long was Samantha Cookes jailed for?
Cookes was arrested Tralee in Ireland in July 2024 for welfare fraud, deception and theft and in March this year was sentenced to three years in prison.
An original five-year sentence for fraud was reduced to four years as a result of her guilty plea and the final year was suspended for a period of four years.
Previously, the court heard Cookes had claimed the disease was life-limiting and would prove terminal but she was unable to see a neurologist because of Covid-19 restrictions.
But her web of lies collapsed when the gardai obtained her medical records, after being alerted to possible fraud by state department officers.
Sentencing her at Tralee Circuit Court in County Kerry, Ireland, Judge Ronan Munro described it as “a carefully orchestrated plan” to take money from the state and “a deliberate fraud over a protracted period of time”. She had “cynically exploited” sympathy for those with Huntington’s disease.
Cookes is now serving her sentence in Limerick Prison.
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