Benefit grass was fraudster

Rebecca McGladdery

Election-row woman gets community sentence
A WOMAN who admitted fraudulently claiming benefits after reporting a politician to a benefits hotline has been given a community order.

Rebecca McGladdery, of Galland Street, Greenacres, had earlier pleaded guilty at Oldham Magistrates Court to three charges brought by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

She continued to claim benefits, including incapacity benefit and job seeker’s allowance, while working between January, 2008, and April, 2009.

The fraudulent payments totalled £6,413, which she is now voluntarily paying back.

The 44-year-old, a part-time cleaner who is training to be a teaching assistant, appeared on TV and in newspapers before last year’s General Election claiming Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins had paid staff £2.80 less than the minimum wage when she worked for the party in 2009.

Mr Watkins denied the claims and said he was the victim of a smear campaign.

He was reported to HM Revenue and Customs but an investigation found they were working as volunteers and not employees and the matter was dropped.

McGladdery had gone to work for the Labour Party when she made the allegations.

She repeated the claims during the historic election court last November (2010) that saw Labour MP Phil Woolas stripped of his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat for lying about his Lib-Dem opponent Mr Watkins.

At Oldham Magistrates yesterday (14), Michelle Mann, defending, said the claim was not fraudulent from the outset.

It had arisen when McGladdery was asked to undertake overtime but failed to declare it.

Chairman of the bench Peter Claver said they had recognised her early guilty plea and the fact that she had co-operated with the court.

McGladdery was given a 12 month community order, which includes 60 hours unpaid work and the completion of a probation course. She was also ordered to pay £150 costs.