Judge Orders DWP Probe Into Snooker Champion Matthew Selt’s Mother and Sister Over ‘Sham’ Benefits Scam
A bitter family feud involving championship-winning snooker player Matthew Selt has exposed what a judge described as a long-running £200,000 housing benefits fraud carried out by his mother and sister over nearly two decades.
The dispute unfolded at Central London County Court after Susan Hickenbotham sued her children — including Selt and his sisters, Claire Noble and Charlotte Hamblin — over ownership of her £500,000 home in Romford, Essex. Ms Hickenbotham claimed she had been pressured and emotionally manipulated into signing away her interest in the property to Claire in 2019 after allegedly being threatened with eviction.
She argued that the transfer document had been signed under coercion, duress and undue influence, insisting her children had bullied her into surrendering control of the home where she had lived since 1998.
However, Judge Simon Monty rejected her claims, ruling that the deed transferring ownership to Claire was legally valid and had not been obtained through intimidation. The judge found that Ms Hickenbotham had ample opportunity to seek legal advice and understand the agreement before signing it.
Despite dismissing her case, the court acknowledged that Ms Hickenbotham had contributed financially toward the purchase of the property, including a £7,500 deposit payment. As a result, she was awarded a 10 per cent beneficial interest in the home.
But the most damaging revelation came during the court’s examination of the property arrangement. Judge Monty concluded that although the house was officially registered in Claire Noble’s name between 2000 and 2019, Susan Hickenbotham had in fact been the true beneficial owner throughout that period.
This finding meant that the housing benefit claims made by Ms Hickenbotham — supposedly as a tenant paying rent to Claire as her landlady — were fraudulent. The court heard that more than £200,000 in housing benefit had been paid during those years and used toward mortgage repayments.
The judge described the tenancy agreements as a “sham” deliberately created to deceive authorities into paying benefits to which Ms Hickenbotham was not entitled. He ruled that both mother and daughter knowingly participated in the deception and announced his intention to report them to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Judge Monty stressed that neither Matthew Selt nor Charlotte Hamblin had any involvement in the scheme, calling the outcome of the family dispute “a very sorry and entirely predictable end” to deeply unhappy proceedings.
