A benefit fraudster who claimed £31,742 worth of benefits he wasn’t entitled to has been jailed for seven months.

Graham John Smethurst, of Peel Road, Douglas, admitted five counts of making a false representation to obtain benefit and one of failing to notify a change in circumstances.

Deemster Alastair Montgomerie told the 61-year-old while passing sentence: ’You defrauded the public purse over approximately a three-year period. Your motive would appear simply to have been financial gain.’

We previously reported how Smethurst had been receiving incapacity benefit and income support since June 2014. He was said to be unable to work due to heart problems.

Information was received that he had been working as a self-employed gardener and had undisclosed bank accounts with Barclays.

The account details were obtained and showed payments in totalling more than £60,000 over four years.

Deposits had been made into the account with the reference ’gardening’.

The court heard that even taking benefits into account there would still be more than £40,000 unaccounted for.

Smethurst was interviewed at Markwell House but gave a ’no comment’ response to all questions.

His failure to declare his work had resulted in an overpayment in benefits to him of £31,742.16 between June 2015 and June 2018.

Smethurst entered a basis of plea saying he had paid a lot of the money from his benefits into the Barclays account but accepting he had failed to declare his income.

Advocate Paul Rodgers asked the court to consider a community sentence penalty or combination order.

But Deemster Alastair Montgomerie said that the maximum community service hours he could impose was 240 hours and for a combination order just 120 hours which would result in the case ending up in the appeal court.

Mr Rodgers said: ’He is a man that it seems makes very bad decisions when he is in financial difficulties. When the public look at these cases and the amount of money involved they are surprised by the sentences but it’s up to Tynwald to say otherwise.’

A probation report was critical of Smethurst saying that he saw himself as a victim and accepted little responsibility for his actions.

Deemster Montgomerie said: ’Perhaps members of the public seem somewhat surprised by these sentences regarding large amounts of money but these are the sentencing guidelines that the court has to operate under. Otherwise we’d end up in the court of appeal.’

The Deemster told Smethurst: ’You’re getting older but if these kind of offences keep on occurring the court may need to consider a deterrent element no matter what your age is.’