Ex-council worker admits £46,000 fraud

Jul 27 2006 By Steve Johnson, Birmingham Mail

A FORMER Sandwell Council employee has admitted stealing more than £46,000 of taxpayers money.

Jayne Alison Mason, 39, of Hellier Avenue, Tipton, pleaded guilty at Warley magistrates court to eight specimen charges.

Mason admitted six counts of theft from Sandwell Council, one charge of attempted theft, and a further charge of false accounting.

Harry Owen, prosecuting, told the court that the total sum involved was around £46,000.

A previous hearing heard that Mason was likely to ask for a considerable number of similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Magistrates at Oldbury, who remanded Mason on unconditional bail, decided that the amount involved was beyond their jurisdiction.

The case was fast tracked to Wolver-hampton Crown Court, where Mason will appear on August 17. The offences are alleged to have been committed between April and October last year, while Mason was working on the administrative side of the local authority based at the Council House, in Oldbury.

Mason, whose job involved the payment of salaries for fellow council employees, was arrested in January on suspicion of deception.

She subsequently resigned from her job with the local authority.

Her husband Mark, aged 42, also works for Sandwell Council but in a separate department.

Speaking afterwards deputy council leader and cabinet member for strategic resources Coun Steve Eling, said: "It is extremely disappointing that an employee of 20 years, working in a position of considerable trust, apparently chose to systematically steal this large sum from local taxpayers.

"We will of course be pursuing all possible means of recovering this money for the people of Sandwell."

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