A BENEFITS cheat from Burnley who had £75,000 in the bank at one point still continued to claim income support and council tax handouts, a court heard.

Iftikhar Ahmad, 63, collected nearly £35,000 as part of a six-year scam until he was caught out by investigators from the Department of Work and Pensions, the town’s crown court was told.

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Ahmad, of Colne Road, claimed his wife’s family had doled out cash, which had topped up their bank balance. But several currency exchange transactions showed substantial totals being sent back to family in Pakistan.

Jailing him for 15 months for benefit fraud offences, Judge Graham Knowles QC said: “The more money which is cashed by liars like you, the less there is to spend on people who need and deserve this money.”

Jonathan Rogers, prosecuting, said that any savings over £6,000 had to be declared on benefit claim forms and it was apparent that Ahmad had over £10,000 in his bank account when he first made a claim for income support in October 2006.

This was later extended to include council tax benefit in 2007 – when the defendant’s savings had increased to around £30,000.

Mr Rogers said that Ahmad, who was required to notify either the DWP or Burnley Council over any material changes in his circumstances, even had savings of £75,000 at one point in 2009.

The court heard he completed a claims review form in 2011, when his savings had dipped to £43,000.

“Significant sums had been sent abroad, during the period of the indictment,” added Mr Rogers.

James Heyworth, defending, said that his client, who had no previous criminal convictions, accepted that the claim had been fraudulent from the outset and he only had himself to blame.“He is in his 60s, and has a wife and four primary school age children and he is diabetic, taking insulin five times a day to control the condition,” he added.

His five-year-old son had also been seriously ill but was now in remission, though the child still had to take a number of medications, added Mr Heyworth, who said that any prison sentence would place a heavy burden on the defendant’s wife.

Ahmad had been able to repay around £1,000 since the offences came to light and may have equity in his property holdings to meet any future compensation application, the court heard.