A CHEPSTOW benefit fraudster who failed to declare he had savings of at least £24,000 as he claimed money from the state for four years has been jailed.

Justin Cottrell, 40, claimed £13,535 from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in job seekers' allowance between May 2010 and last July despite having a sum of between £24,000 and £25,000 stashed away in three Coventry Building Society accounts.

Cardiff Crown Court heard Cottrell, of Oakfield Avenue, has paid back £500 of the fraud but has depleted the savings accounts to the extent he now has only left £1,000 in them.

When he was caught he had initially said he had no money of his own then changed his story to say that the money was his mother’s before eventually confessing. He had pleaded guilty to the offence at an earlier hearing.

Sentencing him to eight months in prison, Recorder John Philpotts said: “In May 2010 you made a fraudulent claim for benefits on the basis you had no assets when you had more than £20,000 in building society accounts.

“You had significant assets at the time. It was fraudulent from the start. You were less than less than straightforward with the police. This was a fraud that was sustained over a significant period.”

The judge said that he might have been able to suspend the sentence had Cottrell paid back all of the money he had picked up from the DWP – but as that was not the case he had to sentence him to an immediate prison term. Cottrell will serve half of his sentence in prison before being released on licence.