A woman who claimed housing and council tax benefits has been found guilty of failing to declare her full income after working overtime for the council responsible for paying her the support.
Samantha Gray, from Hinckley, pleaded not guilty to the offence committed between April 7, 2008, and November 12, 2010, but was given an 18-month community order with 100 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £425 costs after Leicester Magistrates' Court found the case proven.
Peter Bear, for Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, said Gray had claimed housing and council tax benefits based on her basic income as a visitors' centre assistant, averaging at about £203 a month.
However, over 30 months between 2008 and 2010, she put in overtime which sent her income up to nearly £9,000.
Mr Bear said: "The issue was whether she notified the council about the change in her circumstances."
He said that over the period Gray had been overpaid benefits in the region of £7,000.
"The prosecution took her as a customer of benefits rather than an employee."
Chris Black, for Gray, said: "She was then and still is employed by the council.
"She was contracted to work 12 hours a week at the visitors' centre. The overtime was worked and the money earned. The council's wages department is in the same building as the benefits department and, as the wages department did not divulge the overtime works, she did not declare it."
Mr Black said she was paying back the overpayment at £16 a week and had been doing so for nearly a year.
h/t Dave
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