Samantha Cookes
Samantha Jade Cookes | |
|---|---|
| Born | Samantha Jade Cookes 1988 (age 36–37) Gloucester, UK |
| Other names |
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| Education | Denmark Road High School University of York (dropped out) |
| Occupation | writer |
| Children | 3 |
| Convictions | 26 October 2011 (Teesside Crown Court) 11 February 2025 (Tralee Circuit Court) |
| Criminal charge | Fraud by false representation, theft |
| Penalty | Four years in jail with the final 12 months suspended |
Samantha Jade Cookes, (born 1988 in Gloucestershire, UK) is a serial fraudster with multiple criminal convictions.
First convicted in the UK in 2011, between 2014 and 2024 she perpetrated multiple scams in Ireland under the pseudonyms Carrie Jade Williams, Jade O'Sullivan, Jade Cooke, Rebecca Fitzgerald, Lucy FitzWilliams, and Sadie Harris,. Often posing as a nanny or children’s therapist, Cookes gained the trust of unsuspecting families, before fleeing when her deceptions were uncovered.
In 2020, posing as a writer with Huntington’s Disease, she won the Bodley Head Literature Prize. Two years later, she appeared on social media platform TikTok, where her claims of being discriminated against because of her illness went viral. An investigation into these claims by VICE World News led to the exposure of her many other scams and schemes.
After repeatedly evading Gardaí, in July 2024 she was arrested in Tralee, Ireland for welfare fraud, deception, and theft. Remanded in custody for ten months, in March 2025 she was convicted and imprisoned for three years.
Following the initial VICE exposé, Cookes has been the subject of multiple news reports, podcasts and television documentaries.