A man has been sentenced to 120 hours of community service for an £8,305 benefit fraud.

Wayne Peter Berry, aged 47, of Westminster Drive, Douglas, admitted failing to declare work he did as a self-employed lift engineer.

The court heard he is paying back the £8,305 overpayment at a rate of £20 per week.

We previously reported how Berry was initially receiving Jobseekers’ Allowance from April 2018 as he was unemployed.

He declared some self-employed work as a lift engineer but in November 2018 switched to claiming incapacity benefit and income support due to being unfit for work.

However, on December 27 information was received from an anonymous source that Berry was still doing some work as a lift engineer.

The DHSC obtained permission to access his bank accounts and it was discovered that he had been receiving significant payments.

Berry was interviewed by the department on February 5 this year and admitted that although he had declared some work, he had been doing additional undeclared work.

He accepted that there had been an overpayment to him in benefits of £8,305.17 as a result of him failing to declare the work.

The court heard that Berry has no previous convictions.

Defence advocate Ian Kermode entered a basis of plea on behalf of his client in which Berry said that at the start of his claim he had not been working but accepted that he had done periodic work which he had not informed the DHSC about during the course of his benefit claim.

Stressed

Mr Kermode said: ’Mr Berry was stressed and experiencing significant mental health issues at the time of the commission of this offence.

’Also a number of financial issues were pressing at the time and he would say he was not thinking straight.

’He is now on new medication and in secure employment. He is fit and capable of doing manual work.’

The advocate went on to say that Berry was now working part-time managing holiday lets.

Magistrates also ordered Berry to pay £50 costs.