Pensioner fraudulently claimed £40,000 while working for jeweller

Suzanne Gillman claimed the money over a seven-year period while employed at Beaverbrooks

A pensioner who fraudulently claimed £40,000 in benefits while working full-time in a Dundee jewellers has been given a community sentence.

Suzanne Gillman, 65, claimed the money over a seven-year period while employed at Beaverbrooks in the Murraygate.

Gillman claimed the money while pretending she was too scared to face customers and claiming she had been too sick to work for years.

She was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

Gillman, of Blairgowrie, was also placed on a restriction of liberty order for a year.

She had admitted fraudulently receiving £40,000 Employment Support Allowance between March 2011 and May 2018.

Prosecutors dropped a second charge which alleged that Gillman had fraudulently claimed £19,642.86 of housing benefit and £468.48 of council tax benefit.

Brian Bell, defending, said: "I submit that, whilst it is a high figure, there are potentially truly exceptional circumstances for the court to avoid a custodial sentence.

"I think she would struggle with a custodial setting more than others. I ask the court to take that into account."

Gillman worked full-time in the shop while fraudulently claiming benefits

Sheriff Jennifer Bain KC told Gillman: "It appears to me that your behaviour was sustained and deliberate.

"This is an incredibly serious matter as your actions prevented that significant sum of money from being made available to those with legitimate need."

Fiscal depute Sarah Wilkinson told the court that a review of Gillman's benefits was carried out in 2018 and the benefits agency discovered she had been overpaid.

An investigation of Gillman's bank account revealed payments from Beaverbrooks alongside the regular benefit payments she was not entitled to.

Ms Wilkinson said it became clear that Gillman - after a short period off work with illness - had returned to work.

She said: "Beaverbrooks confirmed she was employed as a jewellery sales assistant in 2003 and was still employed to do 40 hours per week."