£15,000 Ellesmere benefits cheat avoids jail term

Peter Cordingley claimed income support for himself and his wife for a near six-year period between 2008 and 2014 without informing the authorities he had two pension funds stashed away.

The 58-year-old avoided a jail term at Shrewsbury Crown Court as it was revealed he has already paid back the £14,853.59 sum in full by cashing in the pensions.

Cordingley, of Peever Close, Ellesmere, had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to three counts of dishonestly making a false representation.

Mr Carl Templar-Vasey, prosecuting, said the three offences were for claiming income support between July 2008 and March 2014.

"It was a claim to which he was not entitled," the prosecutor told the court.

"He claimed on the basis he was incapacitated from work.

"He failed to declare he had two personal pensions, and if he had have done it would have affected his entitlement to benefit."

The court heard Cordingley had worked for years as an electrician before changing career to become a driving instructor.

He had never claimed benefits before until kidney failure led him to quit work due to extensive dialysis treatment. The court also heard his wife had recently passed away.

Sentencing him, Judge Robin Onions said: "You really have let yourself down.

"It's clear that for most of your life you have been a decent, hard-working man and had not committed any offences.

"You had some health problems and that led to a claim for benefits, but you failed to correctly notify the department as you should have done."

The judge said that while "people could not buy their way out of custodial sentences" he had to take into account the sum had been repaid in full.

He sentenced Cordingley to eight months in prison, suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to carry out 125 hours of unpaid work and to pay court costs of £350.