Labour Councillor - Benefit Fraud

A Bristol city councillor has been convicted of falsely claiming more than £3,500 in benefits.

Simon Crew, who represents Brislington East, was paid a carer's allowance for looking after his sick mother, a court heard.

But after he was elected as a Labour councillor in May 2007 he failed to tell the Department of Work and Pensions about his new role, allowances for which pushed his earnings beyond the threshold that entitled him to claim a carer's allowance.

The amount wrongly claimed totalled more than £3,550 between May 28, 2007, and October 12, 2008, North Somerset Magistrates Court heard yesterday.

Crew, of Eastwood Road, St Anne's, was convicted of failing to notify a change of circumstances affecting his entitlement to benefit and ordered to pay £1,400 in fines and costs. He has already paid back the money wrongly claimed.

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