A Wigan councillor has been jailed for fraudulently claiming almost £1,700 in childcare costs.
Former Labour councillor, Emma McGurrin, was given an eight-month prison sentence after being found unanimously guilty of eight out of nine counts of fraud before Christmas.
McGurrin was suspended from the Labour Party soon after the allegations emerged. The 36-year-old was elected in May 2010, falsely claiming £1,693 for childcare costs while serving as an elected member at Wigan Council.
McGurrin will have to serve a minimum of four months of her custodial sentence.
The judge at Monday’s sentencing hearing at Liverpool Crown Court said McGurrin had made no admission of guilt and had passed blame onto others.
Wigan Council said the sentence underlined the town hall’s ‘determination to stamp out this bad behaviour no matter what political party a councillor is a member of’.
A local authority spokesperson said: ‘Councillors are elected by the people of the borough who expect them to be honest, respectful and live up to the trust placed in them by the electorate. Thankfully these are qualities most of our councillors possess, but this is not true of former councillor Emma McGurrin - sadly she chose to abuse her position of power and responsibility.
‘Unfortunately, Wigan Council does not have the power to remove badly behaved councillors – only voters can do that through the ballot box.’
