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A Department for Work and Pensions chief managed to pocket £45,000 in sick pay while jetting around the world. He has managed to be spared jail – after a judge ruled he could stay free because of his wife’s poor health.

Maurice Okello, 39, a DWP policy advisor, claimed he was gravely ill with malaria after being bitten by a mosquito at his father’s funeral in Kenya. But he was rumbled having toured the world from Tampa, Mexico City, Boston, Gothenburg, Kos, Marrakesh and Brussels.

All the while, he was pocketing taxpayer-funded sick pay. Okello was given a suspended sentence at Southwark crown court after a judge accepted his wife really is ill.

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