THE wife of a former Pembroke Dock mayor, wrongly convicted of claiming more than £13,000 in benefits to which she was not entitled, has spoken of her anguish at having her reputation tarnished.

Doris Kraus, wife of twice-mayor Cllr Peter Kraus, received a discharge last November after a judge at Swansea Crown Court heard she had repaid all the £13,355 in pension credits she had received, when it was claimed she had not told anyone her husband was working.

Mrs Kraus had previously admitted failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions of a change in her financial circumstances while receiving pension credits.

However, following an appeal at Swansea Crown Court last Friday, March 24, all charges against Mrs Kraus, 68, were formally dismissed by Judge Heywood.

Cllr Kraus had began working for the National Trust in April, 2011, sometimes earning £1,700 a month, but in other months nothing at all.

During the-then court case it was stated that by the time Mrs Kraus contacted the DWP she had been overpaid £13,355.02, which she had since borrowed from her children and repaid to the Department.

However, the appeal last Friday found that records of telephone calls to the DWP by Mrs Kraus informing of a change in circumstances had been made.

The recovered alleged overpayments have now been returned to Mrs Kraus.

Mrs Kraus described the ordeal she faced after being wrongly accused: “The first court case was last August, I had been paying the money back about 18 months previously to that.

I thought ‘okay, I’m paying the money back,’ and then I had this letter, I had to go down the jobcentre and was interviewed under caution, and the next thing I have a letter and have to go to court.

“I’ve never been in a courtroom before, it was awful. I was sat there, there were some people laughing and joking before they appeared, they were opening the door as if it was an everyday occurrence.

“There was no way I was going to defraud the DWP.”

The publicity surrounding the case hit Doris hard.

“It was bitter enough having to go through the court cases. I couldn’t read the papers. That upset me more than anything.”

Her husband, Peter, said: “I help anybody out and do a lot of work for charity; when you’re ‘squeaky clean’ and you’re accused of something you didn’t do it’s a massive blow.”

Speaking after the appeal, Mrs Kraus and her husband Peter spoke to the Western Telegraph.

“I’ve got a clean slate, I haven’t got a criminal record.

“I phoned my solicitor David Williams, he believed me from day one.

“The DWP couldn’t apologise enough.

“I’m absolutely relieved, very relieved."

For Doris, the notoriety of publicity from the court cases meant she wouldn’t even shop in any of the local stores for fear she would be recognised and face questions, only returning to the local Asda store in Pembroke Dock recently.

“I only went because I could tell people what happened, I’ve not had one nasty comment from anybody.”

“Doris had more hugs from everybody,” said Peter.

Doris added: “All I want is a piece in the paper, just to let everybody know that my name has been cleared; all charges were dropped.”

Cllr Kraus added: “Nothing was illegal in any way at all; our name has been dragged through the mud.”

“I made the phone call, I phoned up in the March."

James Hartson, her barrister, said the offending had not been through dishonesty or recklessness but negligence.

“She is of impeccable character and finds the whole case very unedifying and salutary.

"She is mortified to find herself in the dock of the crown court. She will never grace this court again.

“She has never been in debt in her life, not even overdrawn,” he added.