Catering assistant in hot water

A Forest Gate catering assistant has been sentenced to a two year Rehabilitation Order for benefit fraud amounting to more than £13,000.

Kelly Rowley, 33, of Ham Park Road, Forest Gate, deliberately hid her work as a catering assistant while claiming benefits.

Rowley had been in receipt of Housing Benefit and Income Support since 1997 after telling the council that she was unemployed.

As a result of an anonymous tip off Newham’s Benefit Investigation Team and the Department for Work and Pensions launched a joint investigation in September 2003. 

Investigators found that Rowley had been working since May 2001, a fact that would have affected her benefits.

The fraud lasted over two years and resulted in Rowley being overpaid nearly £10,978 in Income Support, £2,123 in Housing Benefit and £736 Council Tax Benefit. She will have to repay all monies.

Rowley appeared at Stratford Magistrates Court on August 12  2004, where she pleaded guilty to ten charges of making false representations contrary to the Social Security Act 1992.

Councillor Lester Hudson, Cabinet member for Finance, said: “Fraud will not be tolerated and we have no hesitation in prosecuting those we believe are responsible for it.”

Tragedy as toddler falls to his death

A TODDLER fell to his death from a block of flats in Forest Gate on Sunday evening, according to a report in the Newham Recorder.

Two-and-a-half-year-old Ahmed Ali plunged three floors from his home in Katherine Road at around 9pm.

He was taken by ambulance to Newham General Hospital in Plaistow but pronounced dead on arrival.

Chief Insp Dave McKelvy, at Forest Gate Police Station, said: "We spoke to the mother initially on Sunday night.

"She went to stay with friends but left in the early hours of Monday. She was obviously distressed and went missing for a short time. We are now trying to help her deal with the whole thing, by supporting the family. We are also trying to find the child's father."

The officer said the incident was not being treated as suspicious.

"It looks on the face of it like a tragic accident. We await the result of the post mortem, but we are keeping an open mind at this stage," he added.

The post mortem was taking place yesterday at East Ham.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the incident to get in touch with them on (020) 7275 5794.

Convent Girls Excel Themselves at Energy Challenge

Pupils from St Angelas Ursuline Convent School in Forest Gate attended a week long residential course in Aberdeen last week. This major new initiative gave young people an unrivalled insight into the workings, challenges and opportunities facing the energy industry. Made in London, an organisation which gives support to manufacturing businesses across the Capital, arranged for 19 lucky pupils to attend Energy Challenge 2004, which aims to make young people aware of the damage fossil fuels do to the environment and the importance of renewable sources of energy to our future.

The Energy Challenge 2004 held at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen was organised by the Smallpeice Trust which is an independent UK based charity which promotes engineering to young people as a career. Made in London is a London based organisation which promotes and supports London’s manufacturing sector and arranged for the school to send pupils on the course for no charge.

Pupils were split up into teams and over the course of four days put to use their team building skills, presentation skills, working to tight timescales as well as applying mathematical knowledge, analysis, measurement and calculations. The teams had to generate electricity using wind and wave energy within fixed timescales and to a fixed budget.

Materials allowed were string, corrugated sheeting, duct tape, tubing, balsa wood, 6V motors and high density foam. Once the research had been carried out and the generators built the wind tunnel and wave machine in the engineering department at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen tested each to discover the one able to generate to greatest amount of power in the most efficient way.

It wasn’t all work however with bowling, visits to Shell’s virtual reality suite and the Maritime Museum and a formal dinner on the last night. Accompanying the pupils were teachers and parents and everyone had a fantastic time.