DOUGLAS: TOO FAT FOR COURT FRAUD SUSPECT DUE BEFORE JUDGE

A ‘clinically obese’ fraud suspect who had her case postponed because she could not squeeze into an old fashioned courtroom is due back before a judge today (Thurs).
 
Beverley Douglas, 43, claimed she could not easily make it into the dock of Court One at Inner London Crown Court to face 13 fraud charges.

In May she told officials she could not climb the stairs to the narrow secure doorway leading to the dock of the oak-panelled courtroom, thought to have been built in the Edwardian era.

She sat outside while Judge Roger Chapple agreed to adjourn the hearing so Douglas could appear in one of the court’s more modern rooms with wider doors.

Douglas, of Bensham Lane, Thornton Heath, south London, is accused of claiming thousands of pounds of state handouts while working as a bus driver and a CCTV officer.

She faces 11 counts of making a false representation and two of dishonestly failing to notify a change of circumstances between March 15, 2004 and February 26, 2009.

The charges relate to claims for Income Support from the Department of Work and Pensions, and Housing and Council Tax Benefit from Croydon Council.
 
Douglas faces a plea and case management hearing this afternoon.