Friday, 16 May 2014

Labour councillor's benefit fraud trial postponed

A controversial single mother of 10 elected as a Labour councillor has had her trial for benefits fraud postponed again to October - two years after the investigations into her began.

Cllr Claire Baldwin courted controversy when she was elected in Tilbury when she was found to owe thousands of pounds in council tax and council housing benefit and to have been convicted of failing to ensure two of her children attended school. When her council laptop went missing there were calls for her to resign but she refused.

The hearing has been adjourned until October after the judge described the case as a "shambolic state of affairs".