Ex-Wirral Show boss Alan Robinson is jailed for fraud

Jun 18 2008 by Sue McCann, Birkenhead News

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

Handing the sentence down on Friday, Judge David 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 three-and-a-half 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.