A "greedy" benefits manager falsified claims to steal more than £30,000 of taxpayers' money while working from home during lockdown.

Debbie Bagley, from Canterbury, was employed as a universal credit case manager by the Department for Work and Pensions when she accessed computer records of three genuine recipients, faked payment requests in their names and then diverted the money to herself.

Canterbury Crown Court heard that the mum of one even told her bosses two of the claimants were in rent arrears and the payments should therefore be paid directly to their landlords, only to give her own bank account details.

Other ruses used in her fake payment applications were that one claimant had disabled children and had been living in a caravan, and another was unfit for work.

In total, she defrauded the DWP out of £32,292, some of which she used to pay off debts, between June 2020 and June 2021. Single payments ranged between £1,654 and £8,817.

Married Bagley, 50, sobbed in the dock as details of her year-long deceit were heard.

She had worked out of the city's benefits office first as an administration officer before being promoted in November 2016 to UC case manager. Her trusted role involved processing claims, verifying entitlement, updating claims and notifying changes, said prosecutor Stacey-Lee Holland.

Although most applications are made online, some, as with the three managed by Bagley, would have to claim via telephone due to their vulnerabilities or no computer access.

This meant, Miss Holland told the court, that there was no tracking information available to the claimant. However, she added that every DWP employee has their own unique, agent identification number.

The court heard Bagley made seven false requests for what is known as extra frequency payments on behalf of the three claimants, at times "updating" their phone numbers or adding an "entirely fictitious" email address and then changing back to the correct detail once the fraud had been completed.

For one of the claims, all of which would be forwarded to senior staff for authorisation, Bagley purported the recipient needed the money for her disabled children and grandchildren when the woman had neither, and then that she had been living in a caravan. Again, this was untrue, said Miss Holland.

With another, a man who could not read or write, she falsely claimed he needed payment of just under £5,000 towards housing costs and later, that he had also been underpaid.

"This was a breach of trust, relatively sophisticated, certainly planned and motivated by personal gain...”

"She stated it should be paid to his landlord because he was in rent arrears. She then acted as the landlord and it was paid into her bank account instead," said the prosecutor.

No victim impact statements were provided to the court but it was said one of the claimants whose account she used had since died.

"This was a breach of trust, relatively sophisticated, certainly planned and motivated by personal gain," added Miss Holland.

Bagley, of Field Avenue, admitted seven charges of fraud and seven of securing unauthorised access to computer material with intent.

The court was told her offending began at a time when she was suffering from depression and physical health issues and then "spiralled out of control".

"Her behaviour was completely out of character and she makes no excuses. She knows her whole conduct was completely wrong," said Nadia Semlali, defending.

"She says when she thinks about what she did she is completely disgusted with herself. She says that she had been working from home on her own during the Covid outbreak, was on a lot of medication and suffering from back pain.

"She was working long hours without taking breaks while cooped up in a room on her own. This is not an excuse but some sort of explanation. Now she understands she must face the consequences of her actions."

Bagley attended court using two crutches and was said to suffer from "debilitating" conditions which on occasion confine her to a wheelchair.

Passing sentence, Judge Alison Russell said although her deceit "undoubtedly merited" custody, she could suspend a jail term of 15 months for two years due to her previous good character, a realistic prospect of rehabilitation, her complex health needs and the significant impact sending her to prison would have on her autistic son.

But she told Bagley, who was also handed a six-month curfew between 8pm and 8am, this was her "one chance to make it up to her family, friends and society, and to repair broken trust".

"You abused that trust in you not once, not twice, but on multiple occasions over a year - trust placed in you not just by your employer but the public through their taxes and also those vulnerable claimants who relied upon you to act in their best interests.

"But you didn't do so. You made claims for your own financial benefit and gain through selfish motivation and greed… All of this was done deliberately and calculatedly so you could siphon off the money.

"This was not only deliberate and calculated, it was shameful conduct… These were clearly planned frauds, perpetrated on claimants you thought were so vulnerable that your crimes would never come to light."

The judge had initially imposed a curfew of two years, saying this was because it was “the only punitive element" of the sentence, but was then told by counsel it could not be for more than six months.

A confiscation hearing will be held at a later date.