Benefits official in £24k giro scam.

[newshound]

A JOBCENTRE worker is facing jail after stealing more than £24,000 by filling in his own name on blank giros.

Reports The Scottish Sun.

Its reported that a 36 year old civil servant who has worked for the DWP since 2000, had stolen blank Giro's meant for crisis payments to claimaints, and after making them out to himself, cashed them - to the value of approximately £24 thousand in total.

Apparently when police, who were called in by the DWP, raided his home they found a official stamp that is used to authenticate the giros.

The accused, who has admitted fraud between August 2007 and March last year, whose role included dealing with crisis loans for vulnerable benefits claimants has been warned he could face a jail sentence has been released on bail, and is due to be in court again for sentencing in September.

[admin]

Good to see the DWP caught this eventually.

Time for them to update their benefit cheats page, to include staff stealing and defrauding as one of the things they are targetting.

It would make the list a little fairer, as its all about claimaints at the moment, no mention of the fact that staff can commit fraud, or even the contractors that they pay to work for the DWP....