A BRIDGEWATER High School teacher has been convicted for stealing benefits.

Angela Edwards, a physics teacher at the Appleton community school, pleaded guilty to benefit fraud at Warrington Magistrates Court.

The 45-year-old, of Dale Lane, claimed £2,795.96 in housing benefit she was not entitled to and has been ordered to repay the amount plus £100 in costs.

She was sentenced to a 12 month community order and told to do 100 hours unpaid work.

Following the court case last month Adrian Webster, benefits manager at the council, said: “All benefit theft is crime.

“There are no exceptions and that is why the council is determined to bring fraudsters to justice.”

Warrington Borough Council has confirmed that Miss Edwards has been suspended while an investigation takes place.

It is the latest controversy to develop at Bridgewater High with two teachers now suspended from the school.

Robert Glew has also been ordered to stay at home while council bosses look into a naked picture of the head of modern languages that appears on a naturism website. But readers have voiced support for the teacher, saying the snap of him running down a beach at a ‘skinny dip’ with British Naturism should not be linked to his job.

Bristol resident Barry Crouch said: “Nudity is not illegal in England.

“Naturists are free to go about naked, so long as they do not intend to cause distress to others.

“Robert Glew appeared in a bone fide naturist publication, and committed no offence, therefore there is no reason for him to be suspended or investigated.

“We are all born naked, we should not be ashamed of our bodies, and it is totally wrong to give the impression that there is something distasteful about a purely natural object.”

But the council says suspension is a usual procedure during an investigation and that it does not imply any wrong has been done.