A LINGFIELD woman has blamed her "scatter-brain" for not notifying the Department for Work and Pensions that she was working.
Tracy Chubb, of Racecourse Road, appeared at Horsham Magistrates' Court on Monday last week charged with failing to notify them that she was in employment between November 2010 and December 2011.
Her trial is set to continue today (Thursday).
The 45-year-old had been receiving benefits from the Department of Work and Pensions since 1999 claiming she was unable to work due to illness – including arthritis and cataracts.
But in November 2010, she has secured a job as a bank telephonist at the Queen Victoria Hospital in Holtye Road, East Grinstead.
The court heard how she did not notify the department of the changes in her financial circumstances.
She told Colin Finnegan, a fraud investigation officer, "I am quite a scatter-brain, a ditsy woman.
"I did not know I had done anything wrong.
"I was not sat there rubbing my hands together like Scrooge.
"I work as bank staff to cover them. It is a few hours here."
The grandmother-of-two has pleaded not guilty to the charge of fraudulently claiming £2,406.
Pamela Draper, a civil servant at Crawley Job Centre, told the court that Chubb had attended an interview with her in February 2011, and she had tried to see if they could assist her back to work.
Mrs Draper told the court: "We fill out a form as to her health and anything that may have changed in her circumstances.
"If she had said that she was in employment then that would have been written on the form, which it was not.
"There was no talk of her working at that time.
"Tracy said she would love to work but said she thought no-one would employ her due to her medical problems."
