Woman 'killed family' to get off work

A UK woman falsely claimed a host of family members had died -so she could claim days off work. Source: Supplied

A BRITISH social worker has been struck off after lying to bosses about the deaths of her father, mother, uncle, aunt, brother and ex-husband to get time off work.

Rachael Miles took 66 days off work with Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, where she was part of a 16-plus team working with vulnerable people.

After a two-day hearing concluding on March 28, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) found she fraudulently claimed compassionate leave and carers' leave.

The panel heard evidence that Ms Miles made up stories about the deaths of loved ones, including claims her ex-husband had hung himself and she needed to identify his body.

In her first claim in February 2010, less than two weeks after starting work for the council, she told bosses her father had been in a car crash, later reporting he had died.

The following month Ms Miles claimed her mother had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act, and later that year that she had died during surgery.

In 2011, she told bosses her brother died, followed by her ex-husband.

In November that year, Ms Miles asked for more time off after telling bosses her uncle and then her aunt died seven days apart.

The council launched an investigation and decided to redeploy her to another post in the authority but she resigned instead.

Ms Miles did not attend the hearing in London and was not represented.

The HCPC struck her off its register and placed an interim suspension order on Ms Miles, who can choose to appeal against the decision.

A spokesman for Solihull council said it did not comment on individual staff matters.

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How did family survive this crash?

The guard rail tangled in the car. Picture: Bill Hearne Source: The Daily Telegraph

A FAMILY road trip has ended centimetres from tragedy when their out of control car left the road and became entangled in a guard rail in Sydney?s north west early this morning.

A mother in her thirties and her three children, aged one, three and five, all walked away from the crash in West Pennant Hills with minor injuries.

Just down the hill from a set of lights at the intersection of Eaton Road and Pennant Hills Road 20 metres of guard rail was wiped out and strewn across the footpath showing the Toyota’s path of devastation.

The guard rail just misses every family member in the car. Picture: Bill Hearne Source: The Daily Telegraph

Amongst the mess of twisted metal the rail pierced and speared its way through the front windscreen and out the left tail light grazing the cheek of a child in a booster seat in between.

“The kids’ had a lucky day,” one officer at the scene said.

“The rail glanced the side of the young girl’s face.”

Emergency services shook their heads in disbelief that nobody had died such was the complex devastation wrought to the car by the metal railing twisting in and out of it.

At the roadside the mother held her children as they were cared for by paramedics with one little girl wrapped in a blanket and helped onto a stretcher before being wheeled into an ambulance.

As the family was looked after a procession of semi-trailers and oversized trucks slowly motored past craning their necks to view the roadside carnage.

A pole narrowly misses a child. Picture: Bill Hearne Source: The Daily Telegraph

The distraught mother was seen on her phone while her remaining son and daughter sat peacefully to the side of the wreck seemingly oblivious to how close to serious harm they had come.

After they had been checked out they were put into the ambulance along with their sister and the family was taken to Westmead Children’s Hospital with injuries including a suspected fractured arm and cuts and bruising to the face.

A roadside breath test came back negative with police suspecting fatigue was a factor in the crash.

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Hockey backs tax cuts, family payments

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey says families can have tax cuts and payments without a carbon tax. Source: AAP

SHADOW treasurer Joe Hockey says a coalition government will be able to deliver tax cuts and welfare rises without the carbon tax, but details won't be released until at least 10 days into the election campaign.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Tuesday told The Australian newspaper that despite the abolition of the carbon tax and the $15 billion in compensation over four years that comes with it, he was confident that "people will be better off under us".

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has used a government analysis to claim that families would be $2300 a year worse off under an Abbott government.

Mr Hockey told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday the coalition would not be releasing its tax and family payments policy until the release of the Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook by Treasury 10 days into the election campaign starting in August.

"Let me be very clear, if there is no carbon tax there is no need for compensation," he said.

"What we've said is families will be better off under the coalition."

"They would not have a carbon tax, there would be welfare payments to families and tax cuts based on levels without the carbon tax package."

Mr Hockey said the coalition had no faith in the government's budget numbers which had been "dead wrong" for the past five years.

He said the coalition would find savings in the federal budget to fully fund its promises.

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Family feuds spark brawls in Qld town

POLICE reinforcements have been sent to a northwest Queensland town after a mob smashed windows at the local station.

A large crowd formed outside the Doomadgee Police Station early Sunday after a man was arrested for allegedly breaking a female officer's nose with a torch.

The group smashed windows at the station, a local police officer told AAP.

A number of officers from Mount Isa have since been brought in.

A 53-year-old man has been charged with seriously assaulting a police officer and will appear in Doomadgee Magistrates Court on March 7.

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