West Midlands Fire Service employee sentenced for benefit fraud

Dec 2 2010 by Kat Baldwyn, Birmingham Mail

A WEST Midlands Fire Service employee who pleaded guilty to a £15,000 benefit fraud has been given a 12-month supervision order.

Karen Wheatley, 47, of Denaby Grove, Yardley Wood, had claimed she had difficulty walking and had to use sticks seven days a week.

She also told the Department for Work and Pensions that she had balance problems, could not carry, cook or do housework and struggled to look after her children.

But investigators discovered she was working for West Midlands Fire Service in the Occupational Health Department – where nobody was aware that she even had a disability.

Wheatley would walk around unaided, often tackled 18 stairs to the photocopier, walked from the car park to her office and declared on her application form that she had no disability.