Benefits claimant had a job

A BENEFITS cheat failed to tell the authorities that he was working for Tesco.

Michael Burgess, of Whinney Hill Park in Brighouse, pleaded guilty to two charges of dishonestly failing to notify a change of circumstances likely to affect his entitlement to a benefit.

The 47-year-old claimed £6,458 in employment and support allowance and housing benefit that he was not entitled to between July 2016 and January last year.

Kirklees Magistrates’ Court in Huddersfield were told that Burgess initially made claims for these benefits on the basis that he suffered from depression and neither he nor his wife had any other source of income.

Prosecutor Andy Wills said information came to light that Burgess had failed to tell the Department for Work and Pensions that he had started working for Tesco in July 2016.

He claimed he contacted the department but when the recordings of the telephone conversations were checked there was no mention of a new job with the supermarket.

Debbie Lumb from the Probation Service told magistrates that Burgess said he sent a letter to the DWP together with his Tesco contract but didn’t make a copy of it.

She said: “He struggles with phone calls and when he gets through he doesn’t know what to say. He’s very remorseful and admits that he was wrong. He knows he’s taken money from the public purse.”

Magistrates were told that the money overpaid to Burgess is now being repaid to the authorities.

They ordered him to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work as punishment.

He will have to pay £85 costs and £85 victim surcharge.