Last updated 19:45, Thursday, 10 July 2008

A KESWICK man has been jailed for 60 days for committing benefit fraud totalling more than £14,000.

Jonathan Leslie Hunter, 46, of Browfoot, appeared at West Allerdale Magistrates Court for sentencing on Tuesday.

He had previously pleaded guilty to three charges of dishonestly making a false representation in order to obtain income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

In a case brought jointly by the Department for Work and Pensions and Allerdale council, magistrates heard evidence of how Hunter was overpaid a total of £14,540.69 between April 2004 and March 2007.

Hunter failed to advise the Department for Work and Pensions and the councill of his true financial circumstances, namely that his wife was working at the Rickerby Grange Hotel, Portinscale.

Hunter had already been prosecuted by the Department for Work and Pensions and Allerdale council in 2004, for failing to advise both departments that he was working while claiming benefits. He received a four month curfew order for that offence.

The court heard that when Hunter was interviewed in 2004 about failing to declare his own work, he failed to advise investigators that his wife was also working, but instead continued to claim benefit falsely.

Hunter had not made payments towards the latest overpaid benefit as he was still repaying the overpayment from his previous prosecution.

Magistrates advised Hunter that in light of his earlier conviction, and for not advising investigators in 2004 that his wife was working, nor attempting to put it right in the three years that followed, they had to impose a custodial sentence.

Hunter was sentenced to 60 days prison for each offence, to run concurrently.