Clerk ‘used allowances to buy her groceries’
Saturday 10th December 2011, 11:00AM GMT.
A former clerk of Bridgnorth Town Council allegedly used claims for meal allowances to help buy her family groceries, an employment tribunal heard.
Rachel Humphries on one occasion submitted a receipt for a dinner supposedly consisting of two whole roast chickens, two cheeses and a one-litre bottle of Ribena, yesterday’s hearing was told.
Mr Richard Powell, counsel for the local authority, accused Mrs Humphries of actually buying food for her family. Mrs Humphries denied the food was household grocery shopping and said she would have eaten ‘a significant amount’ herself that night. She added: “I have been a yo-yo Atkins dieter on and off.
“The more protein you can eat the more you can lose weight.”
Mrs Humphries, of Coalbrookdale, took over as town clerk at Bridgnorth in June 2008 but resigned in December last year after being off sick for three months with work-related stress and then undergoing a difficult pregnancy.
She claimed the authority and a group of councillors sexually discriminated against her.
She is also taking the council and the members to tribunal for disputes over maternity, whistle-blowing and holiday pay.
The tribunal heard Mrs Humphries’ ‘subsistence’ allowance claims for meals did not exceed the maximum £10.26 she was allowed. Mr Powell said, however, a second dinner claim was for a restaurant in Bridgnorth where the receipt listed two large diet drinks, a barbecue chicken dish with a choice of salad or chips and coleslaw as well as a mixed grill with the same option.
“That wouldn’t really fit with the Atkins diet, what with the salad and chips and coleslaw,” said Mr Powell.
The hearing continues.
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