Suspended sentence for man in £30,000 benefits swindle

A POWER station worker who claimed nearly £30,000 in benefits over a ten-year period has escaped a prison sentence.

Alan Green, of Bank View, Whiston, was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, after he admitted at Sheffield Crown Court to 17 charges of making false claims and failing to declare a change in circumstances.

Green was also given a six-month curfew order, as well as a requirement that he lives at his current address for six months, and ordered to pay £1,000 in costs.

The court heard that Green claimed £10,413.67 in housing benefit, £3,343.50 in council tax benefit and £14,489.51 in pension credit from April, 2000, to October, 2010, on the basis that he was unemployed.

The offences came to light after an anonymous allegation that he was working in power stations was made to the Rotherham Borough Council’s fraud investigation unit.