A WHEELCHAIR-bound charity volunteer, who helped other disabled people apply for benefits, has been sentenced for benefit fraud.

Former soldier William Marshall, 58, conned almost £43,000 from the state when he failed to declare he had an Army pension.

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Judge Pamela Badley, sentencing at Preston Crown Court, said he had set an ‘extremely poor example’ to the service users at the Community and Voluntary Service in Blackburn as she handed him a suspended sentence.

Marshall also failed to declare student finance awarded to him when he started a course at Blackburn College.

Marshall, of Olive Road, Darwen, pleaded guilty to six counts of benefit fraud, totalling £42,960.72p which he had claimed over eight years. His dishonesty spanned across income support, employment support allowance, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

The court heard Marshall, who has alcohol dependency and mobility issues, started claiming benefits legitimately in 2003 after leaving the Army.

But from September 2006 he was awarded an Army pension and failed to notify the authorities of his change in financial circumstances.

When he started college, in September 2012, he again failed to inform the DWP about his student grants and loans.

In July 15, Marshall was interviewed and accepted his claim was not correct, but claimed he had been confused and had not deliberately defrauded the state. However he later pleaded guilty to six counts of benefit fraud.

Judge Badley said: “I understand that you had a very good Army career and you served your country well in those days.

“It is a shame that you blotted your copybook in civilian life, not carrying on that example.

“It is particularly poor because you have been helping others but at the same time as giving advice to people in respect of claiming benefits you were cheating the system yourself.”

She handed Marshall an eight month sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered him to pay a statutory surcharge.

He must also carry out 10 days rehabilitation requirement.