A WORKER at Calderstones claimed more than £10,000 in sick pay while also working as a part-time teaching assistant.

Joanna Heys, 43, was convicted of the offence after a trial, despite the fact she told her NHS bosses she had taken the part-time teaching job and reduced her hours at the hospital.

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But magistrates said while they accepted the offence was not pre-meditated they believed it was dishonest.

Heys, 43, of New Chapel Street, Blackburn, was convicted of furnishing false details for the purpose of obtaining occupational sick pay.

She was sentenced to 24 weeks in prison suspended for 12 months and ordered to pay £1,500 compensation.

The trial heard Heys had been injured as a result of an assault at work in January 2013. She returned to work but took sick leave again in April due to back pains.

At that time she reduced her hours from 37.5 to 23 after telling her bosses she had accepted a part-time teaching post.

Between April 2013 and February 2014 she received £10,435 in sick pay before resigning from the trust.

During that time she submitted certificates stating she was unfit for work, despite being employed as a teaching assistant.

Heys did not accept criminal intent, claiming she had made her employers aware from the outset of her employment as a teaching assistant.

She believed the sick notes referred to her being unfit to work at Calderstones, where she might have been involved in physical restraint.

Graeme Parkinson, defending, said his client was “mortified” by her conviction.

“It goes against every moral fibre she has in her body,” said Mr Parkinson.

“It was a union rep who suggested to her she might be entitled to something and this wasn’t a planned attempt to extricate money she wasn’t entitled to.”