A ‘mum on the run’ who fled the UK four years ago for a dream life in Thailand – and spends her days sharing tips on how to claim benefits while living abroad – claims she’s been detained in a Thailand jail after overstaying her visa.
The extraordinary story of Ellis Matthews, 32, who once appeared on reality show Judge Rinder after apparently squandering a £6million fortune, has seen her amass 16,400 followers on TikTok, thanks to her bikini-clad posts on how her lifestyle in the tourism hotspot is funded by British taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
And in recent weeks, there’s been another darker twist in her story, after the ex charity worker, originally who grew up in Bamber Bridge, Lancashire, says she’s now been jailed by Thai authorities after a police raid on her home in Pattaya.
The mother, who says she doesn’t miss the older children she left behind in the UK and views them as ‘surrogacies’, lives in a one-bedroom bungalow with her youngest son, Cairo, three.
Until she was arrested and jailed by Thai police, many of her posts on @mumontheruninasia offered insight into how she supposedly claims £2,300 a month in benefits because of her ‘six mental disorders’.
Ms Matthews, who has previously gone by the name of Ellise May Matthews, says she’s now being forced to endure bleak conditions inside the Thai detention centre where the mother is apparently being held.
In one of the photos on TikTok, an image shows a fellow inmate behind bars in a less than well-kept prison, with rubbish on the floor and dirty walls and the images do appear to match with the interior of a Thai detention centre previously shared online by a British tourist.
Apparently referencing her young son Cairo, Matthews has written the caption: ‘I don’t care about me but please pray for my son’.
British woman Ellie Matthews, who calls herself a ‘mum on the run’, says she’s been incarcerated in a Thai jail. The mother, originally from Lancashire, shares tips on how to claim UK benefits while abroad with her 16,400 followers on Tiktok
Ms Matthews, also known as Ellise May Matthews, says she’s currently been held in a Thai detention centre in bleak conditions. She has lived in a one-bedroomed bungalow, funded, she says, by the British tax payer since moving to Thailand four years ago
Ms Matthews also shared this photo of a child’s foot at the detention centre where she says she’s being claimed
A GoFund Me account has also been set up in Matthews’ name, with donations currently at £150.
The charity platform’s donation page plea reads: ‘Keeping it short but will update. Funds needed to support Mum On the run and Cairo’.
The message says the account was set up ‘without her permission and at the request of others on TikTok’.
Previous videos have seen Ms Matthews, who says she ‘ran away’ from the UK while pregnant with her son, helping others to negotiate the UK benefits system while living in the sunshine.
In one video, Matthews, holding a fistful of notes and wearing a string bikini, tells her audience: ‘I picked up my Disability Living Allowance today and I’ve been doing so for the past four years of not living in the UK.’
She explains: ‘I am diagnosed with around six mental disorders that without in-house treatment, without me being put into a hospital for a minimum of one year, my prognosis is quite poor therefore I need ongoing treatment costs to be met by the NHS by the taxpayer, thank you very much.’
The former charity worker adds: ‘So, I receive around £2,300 per month undisputable [SIC] money and that pays for my lifestyle out here in Thailand.’
Ms Matthews then goes on to share tips that could help others in similar situations claim for such benefits and how to avoid attending UK-based meetings.
Prior to her apparent incarceration, she says she lived in a one-bedroom bungalow with ‘rent and bills paid for by the British benefit system’.
In another video though, she claims she lives in a two-bed ‘villa on private land with a communal pool and 24h security’.
Appearing on an episode of Judge Rinder, Ms Matthews told TV barrister Robert Rinder that she’d been awarded a sum of £6million after failings by the local authority that cared for her in childhood.
Judge Rinder said Ms Matthews childhood experiences were amongst the worst he’d come across in litigation
A Go Fund Me account which appears to have been set up to help Ms Matthews and her son Cairo
However, TikTok posts have questioned the authenticity of Ms Matthews’ story
Ms Matthews says she has been diagnosed with ‘around six mental disorders’ which means she’s entitled to claim for Disability Living Allowance while living overseas
According to the UK Government’s website, Gov.co.uk, British citizens living overseas ‘may still be able to claim some benefits’, saying ‘what you’re entitled to depends on where you’re going and how long for’.
Thailand isn’t listed on the countries that currently have a UK benefits arrangement.
According to the Thai embassy, British nationals can stay in the country for three-months on a tourism visa, which may be extended by another month upon request.
Those overstaying a tourism visa will be fined 500 Baht (£11.40) for each day they overstay in Thailand.
However, others have suggested in response to Ms Matthews videos that all may not be as it seems.
On one TikTok account, @lifeWithEllis2025, a post asks people not to donate to the Go Fund Me page, saying: ‘Ellis is fed, watered and sheltered whilst detained in the detention centre.
‘Cairo is being cared for and doesn’t need any money donating.’
Matthews, who has listed her former employment as being a charity worker, appeared on an episode of Judge Rinder, the reality show that launched the career of TV barrister Robert Rinder, before she fled the UK.
In the episode, she told the reality TV programme that she’d been awarded £6million after she was let down by Lancashire local authorities in childhood. There’s no record of her ever being awarded compensation from the local authority.
She said: ‘I was raised by the local authority and the case was brought to them for negligence and damages and failure to provide a safe environment. Numerous placements, numerous schools…’
Ms Matthews says her mother was the subject of ‘constant drug raids and was in and out of prison’ and that she lived in 130 homes when she was a child.
She told the programme that she endured one particularly traumatic incident where she was locked in a cupboard under the stairs with a drug user who ‘had overdosed in our house’.
Another recent post saw her say that she doesn’t love the children she’s left behind in the UK, because ‘they’re not a part of my life’, before she adds: ‘I consider them surrogacies’.
In 2020, Ms Matthews was caught drug driving after police found her behind the wheel after taking cocaine and cannabis.
According to an article in the Lancashire Telegraph in 2018, the then 28-year-old had failed a roadside swipe test.
She was also later found not to have insurance and was driving other than in accordance with a licence. Matthews was fined £200 with £85 costs.
