*MKILETEWA HAPA NA FLORA LYIMO DESIGNER*
Fraud raps ... Beverley Douglas yesterday
Woman too big for court
THIS is the first picture of benefits fraud suspect Beverley Douglas - who had her case postponed because she was too fat to get into court.
The 43-year-old told officials she could not climb the stairs to a narrow doorway leading to the dock to face the 13 charges against her.Douglas instead sat OUTSIDE the courtroom while Judge Roger Chapple agreed to adjourn the hearing so she can be tried in a more accessible dock.
She is accused of pocketing thousands of pounds of state handouts while working as a bus driver and CCTV operator.
Yesterday The Sun tracked Douglas down to her ground- floor flat, where she denied any knowledge of last Wednesday's problems at old-fashioned Inner London Crown Court.
Too many steps ... the court
She wheezed; "It's just been changed to another date."
The clinically obese suspect added she had no idea about any charges against her, before leaving her home, squeezing into her red Dodge Avenger and driving off.
Douglas, of Thornton Heath, South London, faces 13 fraud raps relating to benefits claimed between March 2004 and February 2009 while she was working. She is accused of raking in income support from the Department of Work and Pensions, as well as housing and council tax benefits from Croydon Council in South London.
Douglas was bailed ahead of a new hearing on July 7 at a more modern court with rooms on a single level and wider doors.
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