Moonlighting cheat’s guilty plea over second job questioned by judge

Peter Walker admitted defrauding his employer by not doing his work as contracted following his decision to take the post with the NHS at the same time without telling his bosses at Sandwell Council.

But the 46-year-old maintained the local authority had not lost out, insisting he satisfactorily completed all the tasks of the 37-hour week job by putting in the time during evenings and weekends.

However this basis of plea was not accepted when Walker appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court for sentence.

Judge Barry Berlin explained: “This could have been done over a short period but eight years? Not a second is accepted as being wasted and that does not seem credible.”

The council did not accept the basis of plea but was not in a position to provide the court with evidence that challenged or disproved it because of the passage of time.

The defendant dropped an earlier claim that he was given permission to ignore the terms of his employment contract.

Walker has also confessed to submitting time sheets to the council which he knew were untrue or misleading because he was employed by the Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust as a counsellor at the same time as earning up to £30,000-a-year employed as either a learning and development officer or people and talent development consultant for the local authority.

He has also pocketed tens of thousands of pounds in a pay-off collected when he left their employment in September 2014 after successfully applying for voluntary redundancy.

The council argued he would have been sacked and forced to leave without a pay-off if it had been known he was moonlighting and will press for the money to be paid back.

Mr Makkan Shoker, defending, maintained: “He travelled from one place to another taking work from students and marking it. He could do that anywhere and chose to do it at home.

"For the eight years in question his job must have been done properly because there is no record of any complaint or short comings.”

Mr Mark Jackson, prosecuting on behalf of the council, retorted: “It was never our case that he was allowed work at home all the time. This could suggest that the management of him was incompetent.”

Judge Berlin adjourned the case to a date to be fixed so more details can be acquired. He gave the defendant bail and told him: “I am not prejudging this. I need further information.”