Benefits cheat magistrate who swindled £25,000 tells judge: 'I have no money'

A former magistrate who swindled £27,000 in benefits told a judge she couldn’t afford to pay a £20-a-month fine for ignoring a notice served by her local council.

Sandra Howell claimed she had "not got any money" as she repeatedly argued with a judge while being sentenced yesterday. Judge David Swinnerton told the 49-year-old that because of her “bloody-mindedness”, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council had run up a £25,865 bill in costs.

Howell, who was jailed for nine months in October 2018 for cheating the benefits system, claims to have agoraphobia and complex regional pain syndrome.

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Howell, who sat as a magistrate in Stockport, had been convicted of the fraud after video footage showed her walking around and working as a cleaner while claiming she could barely walk. During that trial, she was wheeled into court in a wheelchair each day but the jury was shown footage of her walking across the court precincts and ground floor of the building on the very first day of the trial.

Howell, of Stockport Road, Marple, failed to attend court for her one day trial earlier this year and was convicted in her absence of failing to comply with an enforcement notice. She claimed she had been refused a video link for the hearing, which followed four applications for the hearing to be postponed.

She told the court that it “was not because of my sheer bloody-mindedness” but because when she opted for crown court trial she thought she would be there to defend herself, and didn't know she would be “as low as I am now” and mentioned her health issues, including having had a hysterectomy.

Her dispute with the council