Former club entertainer Robert Webber facing jail

Oct 2 2009 The Journal

A FORMER clubland entertainer if facing jail for a £70,000 benefits fraud concerning his home in Spain.

Robert Webber should have declared his home in Tenerife.

But the 67-year-old kept quiet about the island villa while pocketing benefits and pension credits.

Webber made a name for himself as an entertainer in the pubs and clubs of the North East, sharing the bill with the likes of the late comedian Bobby Thompson.

He was a well known figure in the 1970s and 1980s and would regularly sell out venues like comedian Bobby Pattinson’s Talk of the Tyne in Gateshead. His son, Robert Webber junior, of Beacon Lough, Gateshead, was convicted of plotting to murder rival Terence Mitchell in 1995 and jailed for a total of 29 years.

Webber senior pleaded guilty at Newcastle Crown Court to four charges of failing to notify the change of circumstance – deliberately hiding the fact he had a Spanish property to get £69,000 worth of income support, housing benefit, council tax relief and pension credits.

Webber also admitted a further charge of converting criminal property by using some of the benefit to buy premium bonds. The charges cover a six-year period between March 2003 and July 2009.

He was arrested trying to leave the UK on a coach about to enter the Channel Tunnel earlier this year and returned to the North East.

Judge Guy Whitburn adjourned for a report to be prepared by a probation officer.

He remanded Webber in custody until his sentencing.

He said: “I direct all options to be considered but frankly with the amount of money you cheated out of the public revenue then it is custody.”