Wolverhampton father in £50k benefit cheat sold car parts

Michael Hale triggered the authorities' suspicions in April 2011, and further investigations revealed he had been the middle man for a car parts business between November 2007 and July 2011.

Ms Satu Ruck, prosecuting, said the 43-year-old transferred a "large amount of money" into his partner's account from the online sales.

When interviewed, the father-of-five said he received a sleeve of cigarettes each week for the work, and money was passed to a third party.

He declined to give information about the person for whom he was selling on goods.

That was despite pleading guilty to two charges of dishonestly failing to notify authorities of a change in his circumstances.

Hale, of Hannah Road, Bilston, was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years, and made subject to 18 months' supervision at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

He was also ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work and a workbook.

Passing sentence, Judge Michael Dudley said: "This was a sustained fraud.

"The offences are sufficiently serious that they cross the custody threshold." Ms Ruck told the court that Hale had claimed income support since December 1994 and he was overpaid £40,751.23.

She said he also received an extra £8,611.84 in housing benefit and £2,367.66 in council tax benefit, which he had claimed between December 2009 and September 2011.

Ms Ruck added that he had begun to pay back the overpaid money in £50 instalments each month. Mr Nicholas Berry, defending, said his client had suffered depression without treatment since 1987, when he last had a job, and had only now been properly diagnosed.

He said Hale used the ebay business as a distraction from thoughts of self-harm and it gave him a "sense of purpose and worth".