Pandora
28-09-2005, 06:34 PM
Not before time... see below:-
Reality TV star cheated benefits
Reality TV star Lizzie Bardsley has been found guilty of making false claims for benefits.
Bardsley, 32, who appeared on Channel Four's Wife Swap, denied receiving almost £3,800 from media work while claiming £37,500 a year in benefits.
The mother-of-eight, who said the cash went to charity and family, was found guilty by Rochdale magistrates.
Bardsley, of Hurstead Road, Milnrow, Rochdale, is due to be sentenced later on Tuesday.
Magistrates said Bardsley should have been aware the extra money amounted to a change in circumstances and declared the benefits to the Department of Work and Pensions.
The money was earned from a topless photo shoot (:shocking: :sick: ) in a newspaper, celebrity magazine interviews and money for appearing on Wife Swap.
She will now have to pay back the £4,879 benefits overpayment, which will be taken from her current benefits.
Vincent Carr, prosecuting, also asked for £2,500 court costs.
After the verdict David Chad, defending Bardsley, said she intended to appeal against the court's decision.
He said Bardsley continues to maintain she did not keep any of the cash for her own financial gain but gave it away.
Bardsley had told the court she gave £800 to her sister, Jenny Hallisey.
She also said she had donated money to a cot death charity after losing a 13-week-old son, Timmy Jay, in 1997.
But the prosecution said the cash given away had effectively been subsidised from the public purse through her benefit.
Bardsley now works about four-and-a-half hours a week as a telephonist for a taxi firm in Rochdale.
She has now stopped claiming many of the benefits she was on but is still in receipt of working tax and child tax credit. '
(She works four and a half hours a WEEK??? Is it worth it??)
Reality TV star cheated benefits
Reality TV star Lizzie Bardsley has been found guilty of making false claims for benefits.
Bardsley, 32, who appeared on Channel Four's Wife Swap, denied receiving almost £3,800 from media work while claiming £37,500 a year in benefits.
The mother-of-eight, who said the cash went to charity and family, was found guilty by Rochdale magistrates.
Bardsley, of Hurstead Road, Milnrow, Rochdale, is due to be sentenced later on Tuesday.
Magistrates said Bardsley should have been aware the extra money amounted to a change in circumstances and declared the benefits to the Department of Work and Pensions.
The money was earned from a topless photo shoot (:shocking: :sick: ) in a newspaper, celebrity magazine interviews and money for appearing on Wife Swap.
She will now have to pay back the £4,879 benefits overpayment, which will be taken from her current benefits.
Vincent Carr, prosecuting, also asked for £2,500 court costs.
After the verdict David Chad, defending Bardsley, said she intended to appeal against the court's decision.
He said Bardsley continues to maintain she did not keep any of the cash for her own financial gain but gave it away.
Bardsley had told the court she gave £800 to her sister, Jenny Hallisey.
She also said she had donated money to a cot death charity after losing a 13-week-old son, Timmy Jay, in 1997.
But the prosecution said the cash given away had effectively been subsidised from the public purse through her benefit.
Bardsley now works about four-and-a-half hours a week as a telephonist for a taxi firm in Rochdale.
She has now stopped claiming many of the benefits she was on but is still in receipt of working tax and child tax credit. '
(She works four and a half hours a WEEK??? Is it worth it??)