How TikTok fraudster Samantha Cookes went from ‘cynically exploiting’ the ‘pure goodness’ in folks to jail – as her many scams are revealed
A serial fraudster has been sentenced to three-years in prison for scamming the state of €60,000, after she spent four years lying about having a terminal illness.
Carrie Jade Williams, originally from Gloucester, whose real name is Samantha Cookes, has been jailed in Ireland for deception and theft charges after she claimed thousands in welfare benefits for a terminal illness that turned out not to exist.
It’s not the first time the scammer has faced legal charges for swindling cash. The 36-year has a history of compulsive lying and already has has five different identities and convictions for fraud in Ireland and Britain.
The fraudster first came to prominence in 2022 when she alleged that her Airbnb guests had demanded a refund and were attempting to sue her for €450,000, claiming they couldn’t bear being around a disabled person – with the story becoming a viral sensation at the time.
On Wednesday last week, sentencing judge on the case, Judge Ronan Munro, accused her ‘cynically exploiting’ the ‘natural goodness’ in people and for deliberately lying about having the degenerative disease.
Cookes plead guilty to two counts of deception and 16 sample theft charges, having snagged government welfare payments. She later also cashed in for disability allowance between February 28th, 2020 and June 12th last year.
While at Tralee Circuit Criminal Court in Ireland, Munro claimed her plan had been ‘carefully orchestrated’ to grift cash, having amassed a €60,334 over almost four years through 238 different payments.
A number of aggravating factors made her case yet more heinous, with Judge Munro describing her ‘determined and sophisticated effort to perpetuate the fraud’.
Carrie Jade Williams, an Englishwoman based in Ireland, whose real name is Samantha Cookes, has been jailed for deception and theft charges after she claimed thousands in welfare benefits for a terminal illness that turned out not to exist (pictured)
It’s not the first time the scammer has faced legal charges for swindling cash. The 36-year has a history of compulsive lying and already has has five different identities and convictions for fraud in Ireland and Britain
In 2020, she claimed to the Department of Social Protection that she was suffering with both Huntington’s disease and epilepsy, insisting that her prognosis was life-limiting and would prove terminal.
But Cookes claimed that she was unable to provide evidence of her illness to the department because of Covid, a factor which the court said essentially allowed her to continue abusing the system while going undetected.
In a letter to the department said she was being discriminated against because she was unable a pen as a result of her illness.
She even went as far as to approach a GP to ask them to help fill out her forms so she get her hands on the government payouts, claiming she was struggling to have a grip of things, use the stairs or shower.
Believing her symptoms true, the GP was led to fill out a form saying Cookes had previously been diagnosed with the disease – despite this being far from the case.
The gardaí finally cottoned onto the deception after being alerted by department officer to her medical records, which revealed that Cookes had failed to turn up to appointments and scans ordered by the GP – and had no genetic testing for the condition.
Judge Munro said the GP was ‘blameless’, having only done her best to do her job by sending the fraudster to appointments and scans.
Carrie Jade Williams, an Englishwoman based in Ireland, who is in fact a woman called Samantha Cookes, has a history of compulsive lying, had six different identities and convictions for fraud in Ireland and Britain
In 2020, she claimed to the Department of Social Protection that she was suffering with both Huntington’s disease and epilepsy, insisting that her prognosis was life-limiting and would prove terminal
Cookes, who claimed to be a prize-winning writer, autism guru and terminal illness sufferer, already has five previous convictions for similar offences
The judge also revealed that in the run up to the trial, Cookes had written to him trying to claim that she had been suffering with psychosis, even saying she would rather be euthanised than live with the mental illness – despite there being no medical evidence to point this being true.
The judge said the self-diagnosis would bear no weight, adding that plenty of those suffering from mental health issues ‘don’t engage in this type of behaviour’.
Cookes, who claimed to be a prize-winning writer, autism guru and terminal illness sufferer, already has five previous convictions for similar offences.
The court heard that the serial fraudster previously posed as a psychologist in order to scam people of cash for a children’s trip to Lapland that never happened.
Cookes was initially sentenced to four-years in prison but this was cut by 12-months so she could seek treatment, as she had implied she would. She was also given an addition two-year sentence for a second deception charge and concurrent sentences for theft charges.
The judge said it was a serious offence to abuse the public system, but took into account some extenuating factors including her experiences with child loss.
The sentences have been backdated to July last year, when she first went into custody after being arrested outside Tralee Post Office. At the time Cookes has been living under a false name for the prior 18-months.
Carrie Jade Williams, who claimed to be a prize-winning writer, autism guru and terminal illness sufferer before going into hiding after being outed on a podcast, was discovered working as an au pair in rural Ireland last year.
Serial fraudster ‘Carrie Jade Williams’ was a live-in au pair for Kildare family for six months but fled when their child’s school alerted them to her true identity
The fraudster went viral on TikTok in 2022 after claiming to havebeen sued by Airbnb guests because they couldn’t stand to be around a disabled person, leaving millions outraged for her.
The story even started the #thisworldcanbeaccessible trend.
But the it was later revealed that the story was completely made up, and Carrie was outed on a podcast called Carrie Jade Does Not Exist, which is hosted by VICE journalist Kat Denkinson and comedian Sue Perkins.
In fact, it was just the top of the iceberg of Carrie’s lies, who also said she was an autism expert and award-winning author.
She has mostly kept a low profile, but last year was discovered working as an au pair in rural Ireland for a family of six – having rebranded as a ‘conservative Christian’ who ‘doesn’t think women should wear trousers’.
She is believed to have worked for family for six months before fleeing once their child’s school alerted them to her true identity.
In an investigation that first took her to Kenmare in Ireland, Kat discovered that Carrie Jade Williams was in fact a woman called Samantha Cookes, who had a history of compulsive lying alongside a tragic backstory of child loss.
Cookes then disappeared from her home in Kenmare in 2023.
However four months after she was exposed in Kenmare, the podcast received an email from a woman claiming Samantha was ‘exposed as a fake person’ in her town of Kildare, she was hiding behind the new alias of Sadie Harris.
The email read: ‘Hi, I just came across your podcast and this woman has been living in our community and going to the same church as me. She has been exposed as a fake person yesterday.
‘As far as we can tell she hasn’t committed any crimes but understandably this has shaken many people, she has been going by the name Sadie Harris, living in Ireland, working as an au pair.’
Samantha joined a local church and was posing as a ‘deeply conservative Christian woman’ who didn’t believe that woman should wear trousers and she claimed to have baptised 150 sex workers in a Dublin hotel.
A woman that Samantha befriended while in Kildare wrote into the podcast to say she thought she was ‘generous and kind’ but she felt guilt for letting her around her children.
She added: ‘My kids new her and they were comfortable with her. Something that is hitting me know in hindsight is that everything had a story to it, even her Birthday which was on St.Patrick’s Day.
‘She had this story that when he was a kid she thought St. Patrick’s Day was about her. She said she was going to buy a building space and run toddler classes and asked of I would help her with it.
‘Even now knowing everything was a lie, I still genuinely miss the friendship I thought we had, I miss the person I thought she was. It’s strange to process losing someone who never existed.’
Samantha arrived in Ireland with a fake ID in 2012 but she wasn’t arrested. In 2019 she was arrested for crimes that she had committed in 2016 and 2017 which involved taking 820 euros from a parent who she posed as an autism therapist for and she took a combined 700 euros from three other people.
However her punishment was lenient, she was given a suspended sentence of 14 weeks, meaning she was free to deceive more people.
However, while there was an outpouring of sympathy for Carrie’s story; some people on social media became suspicious and a VICE journalist set to work finding out who she really was
In 2022, Samantha posted a video which exploded on social media, were she claimed she was being sued by Airbnb guests because they couldn’t stand to be around a disabled person.
Samantha, also known as ‘Carrie Jade Williams’, who said she had been diagnosed with the terminal illness Huntington’s Disease, said her Airbnb guests had demanded a refund and were attempting to sue her for 450,000 euros.
She said they’d told her that ‘being around her as a disabled person’ had caused them ‘trauma’.
The story sparked outrage, with the hashtag #thisworldcanbeaccessible trending in minutes. People were desperate to help Carrie and find the heartless guests, and one of those people was VICE journalist Kat.
However, what Kat found was a much darker truth – the story wasn’t real… and shockingly, neither was Carrie.
In an investigation that first took her to Kenmare in Ireland, however Cookes disappeared from her home in Kenmare last year to go on the run again.
However, ‘Carrie Jade’ wasn’t Samantha’s only alias. As Kat set about uncovering more of her several fake identities, she also found years of cruel scams.
The journalist found that Samantha had adopted a pattern of infiltrating small communities and embedding herself in the lives of vulnerable families by posing as someone qualified to look after children – only to then attempt to scam them out of money. In some cases, Samantha even received suspended prison sentences for fraud.
Each time Samantha’s lies began to unravel and people grew suspicious of her, she would pack up, disappear and resurface elsewhere under a new name.
Before she was disability activist Carrie Jade, Samantha was Rebecca Fitzgerald, the autism therapist. And before that she was domestic violence refuge owner Lucy Fitzwilliam, au pair Lucy Hart and a surrogate mother called Claudia.
All of Carrie Jade William’s known identities…
The terminal illness sufferer: Carrie Jade Williams
Carrie first made headlines when she won the Bodley Head Financial Times literary award in 2020 – a prestigious essay competition with a £1,000 prize. She went on to host writing workshops online
Carrie Jade Williams is an English woman in her 30s who claimed to have Huntington’s disease, a rare and terminal neurological condition.
She arrived in Cahersiveen, County Kerry, in 2019 rather out of the blue and soon befriended a woman whose daughter had died.
She first made headlines when she won the Bodley Head Financial Times literary award in 2020 – a prestigious essay competition with a £1,000 prize.
In a video that exploded on social media, Carrie, who claimed to suffer from Huntington’s disease, said her Airbnb guests demanded a refund and attempted to sue her for 450,000 euros for the ‘trauma’ caused by ‘being around her as a disabled person’
Her compelling and emotional essay called: ‘My brain is in a battle it will lose’ told the story of her diagnosis with Huntington’s and how she could no longer write or hold a pen. The essay was said to have been written using assistive technology.
After winning the prize and having the essay published in a national newspaper, Carrie garnered a huge platform and everyone wanted to interview the terminally ill chemical engineer-turned star writer.
She began hosting virtual writing workshops during the pandemic and told those who had joined that she would help them get bursaries of up to £10,000 to kick-start their literary careers. Carrie claimed the money was coming from a literary app she was set to launch.
But as time went on, the app never launched and the group attendees never saw any money. Growing suspicious of Carrie, people began to question her and after months of stringing them along, Carrie said she was going to the US for life-saving surgery and soon ghosted the group completely.
Yet she continued to build on her platform following the win, and made YouTube videos detailing her horror diagnosis. Her story captured the public’s heart.
But in 2022, high on her success as an online disability activist, Carrie told a lie that would eventually unravel her lies. She posted a TikTok calling out Airbnb for allegedly siding with guests who had complained about having to use her accessible doorbell.
‘I know able-ism exists, and I’ve experienced it,’ she said in a teary video.
Carrie claimed the guests, who had stayed at her home, were so ‘traumatised by being around her as a disabled person’ they had complained to Airbnb – and that Airbnb had instructed her to refund them as a result.
The video went viral as people were horrified by the overt display of able-ism and Carrie soon posted a follow-up video – where she claimed the guests were now suing her for 450,000 euros for the trauma caused. They also allegedly slapped her with a list of 13 bizarre demands to cope with the trauma, including an emotional support animal and 25 adult colouring books a year for the remainder of their lives.
However on October 5, 2022, someone on Reddit posted links to articles about a convicted fraudster – who they claimed was Carrie.
Carrie issued a statement saying this was in fact her sister who had struggled with mental health problems and that it was defamatory for anyone to link the pair.
This led journalist Kat to investigate the story and over the course of two months, she uncovered the truth. Carrie Jade did not exist.
The autism expert: Rebecca Fitzgerald
The woman’s real name was Samantha Cookes, but she lived under several fake identities and names, including Rebecca Fitzgerald, Lucy Fitzwilliam, Lucy Hart and Carrie Jade Williams
In 2017, 29-year-old au pair and ‘autism therapist’ Rebecca Fitzgerald moved to Fermoy, a town near Cork, Ireland.
She lived and worked with a local family and formed relationships with parents in the community, advertising herself as a qualified autism therapist who could ‘teach non-speaking autistic kids to talk in just two months’.
Parents in the local area described her as kind, empathetic and the ‘perfect person’ and she was soon invited into their homes to help their children. Rebecca began working at Fermoy’s kids community centre and school.
It is not possible to reverse non-speaking autism in two months, Rebecca had no qualifications and she was not a child therapist.
Julie Lee, a mother in her 50s originally from Johannesburg and a taxi driver who often drove Rebecca from house to house, clocked that she was a fraud.
Rebecca would have no money when arriving at the houses of these families, Julie said, and yet when she picked her up she would have hundreds of pounds. ‘That’s how I knew what she was doing.’
During the drives, Rebecca told Julie she was opening a clinic for children and families and tried to recruit Julie to work there, before asking for a copy of her passport and money. Having recruited other people in the area, one woman even quit her job as an au pair to work for Rebecca.
‘That’s when I realised it was a scam,’ Julie said. ‘An unqualified person doing that, then looking for passport copies, then money.’
People at the school started to ask questions about the qualifications of their child’s new therapist. The school headteacher contacted the Garda [police] but they never followed up.
Julie also reported Rebecca, and the Garda told her they had a thick folder on Rebecca, and had been keeping track of her.
Officers were sent to Rebecca’s home and shortly after, she disappeared.
The speech therapist: Lucy Fitzwilliam
A year earlier, in 2016, bright and bushy tailed Lucy Fitzwilliam, 28, moved to County Geery, Ireland.
She introduced herself to the locals as a speech and language therapist who also ran a domestic violence refuge and quickly became a beloved member of the community.
Lucy met Lynn, not her real name for anonymity, a single parent and domestic abuse survivor whose youngest daughter has Rett syndrome, a genetic neurological disorder that affects the way the brain develops. Lucy offered to be her carer.
Lynn declined the offer but Lucy was persistent and instead said she could do art therapy with Lynn’s oldest daughter Sofia, eight, who had witnessed her father’s abuse.
The family became close with Lucy, and after months of ‘therapy’ she offered them a trip to Lapland. This was apparently being organised by the church who were covering half the cost.
Lucy said she needed a £500 deposit to secure the trip – which would be raising money for the domestic abuse refuge she claimed to run. The community rallied and Lynn’s mother made up 400-500 euros worth of food packages for the refuge.
As the Lapland trip drew nearer, Lynn said she had been trying to find a specialist nurse to care for her youngest daughter. It was at this point Lucy said she would take Sofia to Lapland alone and Lynn and her youngest could join them later once care was organised.
All Lucy needed was Sofia’s passport and birth certificate, Lynn said.
‘She had zoned in on my Sofia and I still to this day believe she looked for a signature from me so she could bring Sofia herself to Lapland.’
Suspicions in the community escalated when one of Lynn’s friends, a woman called Pauline whose son is autistic, said Lucy had also tried to convince her to hand over her son’s passport.
Lucy was reported to the Garda for trying to scam families in the community out of money and passports, but she was let go without charge. She packed up and left County Geery that same night.
The au pair: Lucy Hart
Two years before there was Lucy Fitzwilliam, there was a 26-year-old woman called Lucy Hart.
Bonnie, not her real name for anonymity, a woman in her 40s from Tullamore, had been looking an au pair to help look after her children.
She came across Lucy on an au pair website in 2014. Lucy said she was experienced in childcare and following a quick video call, Bonnie hired her.
‘She was so convincing, and really lovely in the interview we had,’ said Bonnie.
In a video for the ALS ice bucket challenge, Lucy nominated her mother ‘Jane’ to take part and her employer Bonnie’s children poured the water over her head
Bonnie and her children ‘loved’ Lucy and she quickly became part of the family – regaling them with her interesting stories about her previous au pair jobs and her own family. Lucy said she was adopted and that her mother Jane Hart lived in the United States. She said her mother was the ‘main supplier for sandpaper for B&Q’.
In a video for the ALS ice bucket challenge, Lucy nominated her mother ‘Jane’ and Bonnie’s children poured the water over her head.
Lucy soon opened up to Bonnie about her love life, saying she was dating a man in the UK who had two children from a previous relationship.
Bonnie also received an insight into Lucy’s tragic past, as she told her that her previous fiance Liam had had motor neuron disease and killed himself by hanging. Lucy said she had found him.
The pair’s friendship grew but things changed during Christmas in 2014 – when Lucy accused Bonnie’s children of stealing her money and engagement ring. Bonnie did not believe her children would do such a thing and the relationship began to break down.
Bonnie went back over many of Lucy’s elaborate stories and found they did not add up, so one day challenged her au pair as she launched into yet another tale. Kind and smiley Lucy was quickly replaced with an angry woman who accused Bonnie of attacking her and stormed out of the room.
Things remained tense until one day in January when Lucy said she was going on a writing retreat and disappeared.
After a few weeks, Bonnie accepted Lucy was not coming back and went into the room she had been staying in. In the wardrobe she found piles of documents and one truly chilling letter that made her ‘blood run cold’.
Among shopping lists and legal documents was a statement about visitation rights for Lucy’s child – a child whose name matched the one she claimed was her boyfriend’s from another relationship. More chilling still, Bonnie came across a statement.
The statement read: ‘I stand shoulder to shoulder with the coroner and I did not murder my daughter. I pray she is at peace.’
Her real identity: Samantha Cookes
Behind all of the aliases is a real woman – Samantha Cookes.
Born in 1988, Samantha grew up in Gloucestershire, before moving to Shropshire with her mother and her new husband after her parents divorced.
Samantha had a reputation for being a liar, her friend from school said. Her lies included her mother having cancer and her being pregnant and miscarrying.
Aged 18, Samantha was dating a boy called Liam. She went as far as to set up a website to plan their ‘wedding’. There was no wedding.
The pair split up some time later and aged 20, Samantha started a degree in Occupational Therapy at York University.
However, Samantha later discovered she was pregnant and left university in her first year, returning home to Shropshire. She gave birth to a daughter called Martha in 2008.
Tragically, just four months later, Martha died.
A five-month inquest found Martha had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) – a result which appeared to vindicate Samantha, who seemed to have taken the inquest as an accusation.
It was at this point Samantha made the statement later found by Bonnie in Tullamore six years later.
‘I stand shoulder to shoulder with the coroner, and I did not murder my daughter,’ it read. ‘I pray she is at peace.’
Samantha did not return to university as she chose not to fill out criminal records check forms.
Two years later in 2010, Samantha started a relationship with a man, whose identity is not being revealed to protect him and his family. The pair had a child.
The same year, 23-year-old Samantha offered her services as a surrogate on Facebook.
After making contact with a couple about being their surrogate, Samantha passed on the contact of a woman called Claudia, who had previously used her as a surrogate. Claudia gave the excited couple a glowing review of Samantha.
Having never met her face to face, the couple gave Samantha £1,200 out of their savings to cover the cost of the insemination kit, legal fees and other expenses.
Sadly the baby never came, and as both Samantha and Claudia avoided the couple’s messages, they realised they had been duped. The police were contacted and a 23-year-old woman was arrested at her home in Shropshire.
The case came to trial in 2011 and Samantha pleaded guilty to fraud. She received a suspended sentence of 9 months’ imprisonment and a fine of £1890 to be paid to the couple.
But what the trial also revealed was that Samantha and Claudia were the same person. Claudia did not exist.
A year later, Samantha gave birth to a second child with the man she had been dating but due to mental health problems, the father was given sole custody. In 2013 she became pregnant with her third child with the same man.
Determined not to lose custody of this unborn child, Samantha fled to Ireland in the winter of 2013. She gave birth in January 2014.
However, a neighbour reported her to Irish social services and the child was taken into care. After appearing at Irish family court, the father was again given custody and the baby was transported back to the UK.
Samantha had permanently lost custody of her third child by August 2014.
A month later she had changed her name to Lucy Hart and was working for Bonnie as an au pair. In January 2015, she left Bonnie’s home.
In 2016, Samantha moved to County Geery and became Lucy Fitzwilliam and in 2017, Rebecca Fitzgerald arrived in Fermoy.
When Samantha arrived in Cahersiveen, County Kerry, in 2019, she became someone else – Carrie Jade Williams.
