'Benefit cheat' magistrate jailed after pretending she could barely walk
Sandra Howell was spotted dancing at her own wedding - and walking through the Trafford Centre
A “hypocritical” magistrate who blatantly cheated the benefits system out of tens of thousands of pounds by lying about her mobility and care needs has been jailed today. (Tue)
A judge lambasted Sandra Howell about her “flagrant dishonesty” involving claiming benefits while working as a domestic cleaner and put her behind bars for nine months.
The 43-year-old single mum was wheeled into the courtroom each day of her trial in a wheelchair but damning footage was played to the jury showing her walking across the court precincts and ground floor of the building on the very first day of the trial.
She stated on her DWP claim forms that she could barely walk but CCTV surveillance footage was also shown to the jury in which she was walking around at the Trafford Centre, faster than other shoppers, out working and on her driveway.
Judge David Aubrey, QC, told Howell, who sat in the dock with her eyes closed, “Between January 2011 and July 2016 you are sitting as a magistrate at Stockport Magistrates’ Court in accordance with your oath that you had taken to do right to all manner of people.
“You were administering the law, presiding over cases and sitting in judgement on those before you, no doubt on occasions having to determine whether the evidence was so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence could be justified for a particular defendant before you and the Bench.
“No doubt on occasions having defendants in front of you charged with offences for which you now fall to be sentenced.
“During much of that time while you were supposedly administering the law you were breaking the law, repeatedly committing criminal acts by defrauding the state, the DWP by making flagrant dishonest representations by gross exaggeration of your health issues in order to secure benefits that you were not entitled to.
“You were stealing from the state. Between February 2103 and October 2016 you were paid higher rate Disability Living Allowance and received £26,539, money that you were not entitled to.”
He pointed out that within a week of completing a claim form in January 2013 she was sitting as a magistrate and two weeks after completing another similar form in November the next year she was again on the Bench and continued in that role until July 2016.
Judge Aubrey said that despite saying she virtually unable to walk the surveillance footage in June 2016 showed her at the shopping complex and going about her cleaning business.
“Throughout this period of time you were a fraudster. What you said to the Department …. was a sham and it was deceitful throughout.
“You sitting in judgement on others was a sham and a pretence - and a pretence with the highest form of hypocrisy.”
Howell, of Stockport Road, Marple, Cheshire, denied the two fraud offences and maintained she had not been dishonest and employed others to do the cleaning work for her business, Abacus.
Martine Snowdon, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court how Howell claimed she needed round-the-clock care with her daily tasks and personal care and saying she could barely walk because of pain.
But the jury heard evidence from former cleaning customers including a head teacher who told how she went to Howell’s wedding and saw her dancing.
Howell had written very lengthy answers to each of the questions on the claim forms detailing her alleged health problems, which following the jury’s unanimous verdict after just two hours deliberation, Judge Aubrey described as “riddled with falsities and dishonesty.”
Howell told the benefits agency that “she was unable to work because of her disability following a road traffic accident in 2007.
“She said 90% of the time she needed somebody with her to help with her everyday tasks, day and night. Asked in January 2013 about how far she could walk unaided she said for less than one minute and no more than five metres.”
Miss Snowdon that Howell also claimed that she had falls every day and had various aids to help her get around at home including a stick, a hoist and a chair in the shower. She also claimed that it took her one to two hours to get in and out of bed and needed help dressing.
In her early forms she claimed she could walk no more than ten metres without severe discomfort though later forms reduced this to five metres. She told how she walked more slowly than a pensioner and was often reduced to tears with pain and her difficulties going out.
In her December 2014 claim form she said she “was always in pain.The pain is similar to a boiling pan of water about the simmer and when it boils then I have to stop. It happens within seconds of walking.