Wirral Show ex-chief jailed

Jun 14 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

THE former chairman of the Wirral Show started a 14-month sentence for benefit fraud and perverting the course of justice yesterday.

Handing the sentence down, Judge Aubrey, QC, said Alan Robinson was “motivated by an overwhelming desire to be greedy”.

Robinson concealed £20,000 of savings while his wife was paid almost £31,000 in council tax and income support over 3½ years, between October, 2003, and March, 2007.

The judge told him: “You devoted those years to helping yourself, in effect, to other people’s money by defrauding the system . . . This is a gross breach of trust.”

Robinson, of Leasowe Road, Moreton, failed to inform the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about his savings, while his wife received £30,869.96 in benefits.

The 64-year-old first claimed the money was left-over proceeds from the Wirral Show.

His wife, Caroline, was interviewed by benefits officers after they were told about Robinson’s bank account. Within hours, he withdrew £10,000 from the account and closed it the following week.

Robinson was interviewed in March, 2006, and admitted the account had existed but claimed the money had since been returned to the Wirral Show. He sent a faked letter purporting to be from a Mrs R Dunn, supposedly the show’s vice-treasurer, saying the money was not his.

A fraud inquiry was started by police in October, 2006, and when interviewed by them he still insisted the money belonged to the show.

But in June, 2007, he gave a prepared statement to police saying the cash was pension money accrued while working abroad.

Deborah Gould, defending, said Robinson’s fall from grace meant he now wore a “scarlet letter of shame” in his community.

Judge Aubrey had read glowing references about Robinson’s charity work, but he said he had no option but to give a custodial sentence to deter others.

benschofield