A MIDWIFE who held down three jobs with a health board, care home and Cardiff University denied fiddling her expenses yesterday.

Mum-of-two Gaynor Samantha Thomas, 49, claimed health bosses had approved the mileage expenses she put on her expenses forms, Abergavenny Magistrates’ Court heard.

She worked as a community midwife for Aneurin Bevan Health Board, taught midwifery students at Cardiff University and also had a part-time job at Millview House care home in Newbridge, the court heard.

But she denied wanting to make a financial gain after mistakenly claiming "on-call" fees from the health board while working at the care home, the court heard.

Thomas, of Sir Charles Crescent, Newport, blamed her inaccurate record-keeping on her work time sheets on the “traumatic” breakdown of her marriage in 2011.

She told the court: “It has never been my intention at all through the job that I did to make any false claims with any thought at all to act dishonestly or make any gains.

“It certainly reflected my state of mind at the time. Having now left that situation, I can now look at things a bit more clearly and I can see the extent to which I was suffering at the time.

“At no time did I set out to make any money unlawfully against the trust.”

Thomas also denied abusing the health board policy on personal calls after records showed she had spent 3,396 minutes talking to family and friends on her work BlackBerry over the course of 11 months.

She said she had used the work phone at a “stressful time” during her marriage breakdown and had filled in an internal form which would have entitled her to make personal calls though the trust could not find it.

She also denied teaching midwifery students while claiming holiday pay from the university through the health board in a bid to boost her income.

Instead, she said she was owed holidays and had agreed to teach at Cardiff to help the university, which faced acute staff shortages at the time.

Thomas has pleaded not guilty to a total of seven fraud allegations.

She denies one count of fraud by false representation by claiming travel expenses between May 6, 2011 and March 16, 2012.

She denies fraud by teaching at Cardiff University while claiming annual leave from the university on September 27 and November 23, 2011, and January 10 and 11, 2012.

Thomas also denies fraud by dishonestly claiming she was on call while working in an alternative employment to make a gain between October 26 and 28, 2011.

She further denies fraud by dishonestly being available for supervisory on call duties to make a gain between May 23 and May 28, 2011.

Thomas also denies teaching while having alternative employment on July 6 and 19, 2011, and July 19, 2012, and using a work mobile phone for personal calls between October 28, 2011, and March 2, 2012.

She also denies working for Aneurin Bevan health board while having alternative employment between July 10, 2011, and January 29, 2012.

Thomas was bailed to return to Abergavenny Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

Proceeding.