A FORMER director of education has denied illegally claiming benefits by hiding a £40,000 pay-off from Derby City Council.
Rosalind Vahey, 53, is also accused by Selby District Council of concealing payments for nursery and pre-school inspections she received through a company of which she was a director.
The council claims she received more than £6,000 in council tax benefit and employment support allowance she was not entitled to.
Vahey, of Main Street, in Appleton Roebuck, between Selby and York, described in court as "an out-of-work education manager", denies three charges of benefit fraud by failing to notify the council of a change in her circumstances.
She told York Magistrates' Court she had worked in education management, mostly for large county councils, until she left a job with Derby City Council on October 31, 2010. On November 26 of that year, she received £40,000 under a compromise agreement from Derby.
From October 31, she applied for Jobseekers' Allowance through the Department of Work and Pensions and, in the same application, for council tax relief from Selby District Council. When her eligibility for Jobseekers' Allowance ended she was paid employment support allowance.
She alleged she told both the DWP and the council she was in line to receive the £40,000. The council denied she told them about the money either before or after she received it, by phone or in writing. She does not face a charge over the £40,000 relating to the DWP.
When the prosecution alleged that all calls to the council's customer service centre were logged on a computer and that there was no record of the calls to it that she claims she made, she replied: "I don't have much faith in Selby District Council records and recording. There are so many discrepancies between the records they say they have."
When she was accused of hiding £16,000 she received for making inspections for Ofsted in 2011 and 2012, she said she had told the council about it.
She denied allegations that she deliberately concealed information so it wouldn't affect her claim for council tax benefit: "I didn't know it was means-tested" she alleged, and she claimed there was no information publicly available about the criteria the council used to decide who could get the benefit.
The charges cover a period from November 29, 2010, to April 24, 2012. The trial will resume on December 17 at Northallerton Magistrates' Court.
