A POLICE officer who was on long term sick leave from Greater Manchester Police with a back injury was discovered moonlighting -- as a parachute instructor.

PC Andrew Hesketh, aged 43, was helping members of the public parachute 3,000 feet out of planes 120 miles away at an airfield in Lincolnshire, a court was told.

The Bury-based police officer. who was taking legal action to get full sick pay, was also collecting £2,560 from the Benefits Agency and £1,950 from his job teaching people to parachute.

Hesketh was eventually rumbled after an anonymous tip off, Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

Hesketh, of Andrew Paddock, Hibaldstow, North Lincolnshire, admitted eight charges of deception between June 2001 and January 2002.

Hesketh was originally injured in 1996 -- whilst he was on duty in Bury -- attending an emergency call to a school. He fell off some railings and ruptured a disc in his back. The injury required surgery but Hesketh returned to work.

In October 2000, he was working in the police station at Bury when he claimed he had slipped on a freshly-mopped floor.

He said there had been no warning signs erected and, in November 2000, went on long-term sick with back ache and sciatica, claiming his original injury had been aggravated.

Hesketh was on fully paid sick leave for six months. But when his pay was correctly halved in February, 2001, he appealed, claiming the injury had occurred on duty. He lost the appeal.

Hesketh was still living in Bury when he began claiming incapacity benefit but he moved to Hibaldstow, near Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, without notifying Greater Manchester Police.

His benefits claim was transferred there and he continued to claim the, but then began working as a parachute instructor for a company called Target Sky Sports, based at an airfield in Brigg, North Lincs, where his wife was doing catering.

In October 2001, Greater Manchester Police received an anonymous tip-off about Hesketh's activities.

Detectives from GMP's discipline and complaints department began an investigation with the Benefits Agency, which confirmed the scale of the deception.

Hesketh was served with notice of the investigation and nine days later rang the Benefits Agency insisting he "never knowingly did anything dishonest".

Hesketh is now paying the money back to the Department of Social Security. The court was told that Hesketh was no longer pursuing a civil action against police. Judge Stuart Fish told Hesketh his sentence was being adjourned until March 25 for the preparation of pre-sentence reports.

A charge of perverting the course of justice and attempting to obtain money by deception -- relating to the civil proceedings -- will be ordered to lie on file at that time. Hesketh resigned from the force in May, 2002.

Outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Mike Freeman of Greater Manchester Police, said: "Staff on the sick need to know they are being monitored.

"This has saved GMP thousands of pounds."

In November 2001, married father-of-four Stephen Priestley, aged 37, died at the airfield when his parachute failed to open during a jump for a cancer charity.

Hesketh had given him ground instruction and later gave two statements to the Humberside coroner and was called to give evidence at his inquest.

The inquest, in April 2002, heard Mr Priestley died in front of his family while doing his first ever parachute jump and "froze" when he failed to react to an emergency drill.

The chute became twisted during the charity jump in November 2001 but, despite being "calm and confident" beforehand, he failed to detach the chute, which would have led to the reserve being properly deployed.

He died from multiple injuries. A verdict of accidental death was recorded.