A man who netted nearly a quarter of a million pounds by fraudulently taking four different council jobs has been jailed for three years.
Bryn Howells, 66, took on new jobs, failing to declare his existing employment and submitting false timesheets so as not to raise suspicions.
Over a 16-month period he gained a salary and benefits totalling £230,000.
He was employed by Tewkesbury Borough Council, South Gloucestershire Council and Publica Group, which provides services on behalf of three councils.
A court heard he held a fourth council role through an agency during this time but it was not included in the prosecution’s case.
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Howells denied wrongdoing, claiming that not mentioning his other jobs was an ‘unintentional oversight’.
He said he believed the hours declared on his timesheet were when he was ‘available’ for work.
The 66-year-old former surveyor insisted he was not motivated by greed but a desire to support local councils while skilled staff were hard to find.
His fraud was uncovered after Tewkesbury council’s investigators reviewed payroll data.
He was jailed today by Judge Malcom Gibbney, who told him: ‘You took the view this was an opportunity to make hay while the sun shined and you could earn significant sums of money doing work for local authorities, confident in the knowledge they weren’t as diligent in establishing you were doing all that was set you.
‘You have effectively put your head in the sand as far as this is concerned when it comes to accepting your actions were dishonest.’
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