A 53-year-old benefits cheat has been fined £500 for a £4,927 fraud.

Samuel Joseph Colburn pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to inform a change of circumstances after he didn’t declare that his partner was working in a cafe.

He is already paying back the £4,927 via an agreement with the Treasury.

We previously reported that Colburn’s benefits claim had initially been genuine and was not fraudulent from the outset.

However, it was later discovered that his partner had been working at Laxey beach cafe between March 2020 and July 2020, and then again between December 2020 and August 2022.

He was interviewed at Markwell House and claimed that he had not read the declaration on the forms he had signed, or letters he had received.

However, he admitted that he knew that he had to declare any changes in his circumstances and confirmed that his partner had been working in the cafe.

Colburn, who lives at Larivane Meadows, Andreas, said that he was under the impression that she could work without it having any effect on his benefits.

He told DHSC staff: ‘I didn’t understand, but I do now.’

Colburn was due to be sentenced on April 24 but requested that date to be brought forward.

A probation report said that up until 2020 Colburn had always worked and had previously had his own business.

However, he had then suffered serious illness, which was also around the time the benefit fraud was committed.

The report said that his family were going through a lot at the time and it had been a mistake, rather than a deliberate attempt to defraud the benefit system.

Colburn was said to be unsuitable for community service due to his health and probation was not deemed necessary as he had no ongoing issues to address.

Defence advocate David Clegg said: ‘Mr Colburn has been through an extremely bad patch.

‘He was in and out of hospital at the time of the benefit claim.

‘His claim was genuine at the outset. His partner’s employer gave her a few hours of work.

‘He still would have been eligible to claim some benefits. It is not a particularly high amount in terms of these cases and we would ask the court to consider it at the lower end of the spectrum.’

Mr Clegg asked magistrates to follow the recommendation of the probation report for a financial penalty.

Magistrates also ordered Colburn to pay £125 prosecution costs which he will pay, along with the fine, at a rate of £150 per month.