This is Liverpool star Chelsey Harwood falsley claimed £25,000 in benefits

Chelsey Harwood, star of the short-lived scripted reality show This is Liverpool, was jailed last week after she falsely claimed £25,000 in employment benefits whilst she was reported to have bragged about earning £120,000.

In April 2017, the 29-year-old was given a four-month suspended sentence for claiming the large sum of taxpayers’ money but was jailed last week after failing to attend her community service. This, she claimed, was because she didn’t want to get on the bus with ‘scallies’.

The punishment which was handed down in April entailed an 8-week curfew, limiting when she could leave her home, and 100 hours of unpaid community service work. The model and reality star turned up for just one hour of her sentence, after handing in a sick note and claiming to have been harassed.

When offered an alternative placement in the Wirral, 25 miles away, Ms. Harwood said that she didn’t want to ‘mix with scallies’ on public transport in order to get there.

Judge Andrew Menary was forced to send her to prison after she had an outburst in the courtroom and screamed at the judge to send her to jail, after having failed to attend several appointments.

Although the Liverpudlian admitted to breaching the order, she denied that there had been a flagrant disregard for her court-ordered community service, claiming that a man she had encountered at the introductory session had intimidated her online. Harwood’s lawyer said: “I’ve seen those messages. They are serious. There were threats made to harm Miss Harwood.”

The defendant also said, “Am I allowed to answer any of these questions? This is ridiculous. It is not fair.

“He threatened to burn my house down, yes I took them seriously, no I didn’t go the police, I would be in more danger.”

She claimed to have been fearful of attending the community service in the location to which she was originally sent, and when offered an alternative in the Wirral, said that her anxiety about public transport and driving ruled it out as an option for her.

Following her original sentence in April, Ms. Harwood had posted images on her own social media accounts celebrating what she saw as a lenient sentence, and Judge Andrew Menary said, “Everybody knows this defendant courts publicity.

“She, far from keeping a low profile, at every stage of this process has posted online regular bulletins of what she is expecting to happen, what did happen, and various posts since then.

“It’s a bit difficult you see for the court to have regard to online activity when all of this has been encouraged by her.”

Chelsey Harwood first rose to prominence in the online reality TV series This Is Liverpool, which followed the lives of several young Liverpudlians as they partied their way around the city, and has since cultivated an outspoken presence on social media,

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