A former binman from Blyth was spared jail after cheating the system for years. Benefit cheat Keith Griffiths claimed more than £32,000 he was not entitled to.
His claim had been genuine when it began, after he injured his back at work.
But when his wife started working at a local hospital he failed to disclose it and continued claiming benefits to which he was no longer entitled. For years the fraud went undetected.
Suspending the 52-year-old’s prison sentence, Judge Hudson, at Newcastle Crown Court, told him: “Over many many years it amounts to a very significant total sum. This did not fund a lavish lifestyle for you and your family and it is a great sadness to see you in court in these circumstances at your stage of life.”
Griffiths, of Delaval Crescent, Blyth, had begun claiming benefits in 1991.
Then in January 2009 Northumberland County Council received the anonymous call saying his wife was working and had been doing so since May 1996.
Griffiths was interviewed and immediately admitted pocketing £13,453 of income support, £12,305 of housing benefit, £4,479 of council tax benefit and £2,110 of incapacity benefit, making a total of £32,348 he was not entitled to.
Griffiths, who admitted three counts of benefit fraud, was handed a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, with supervision and a curfew. Tom Finch, defending, said Griffiths, who has two grown-up daughters, had started paying back his ill-gotten gains by deducting amounts from his benefits.
Mr Finch added: “This was not unlawful from the outset and there’s no suggestion the claims were to feed an extravagant lifestyle.”
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