A CALDICOT man was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge after admitting to dishonestly receiving more than £8,000 in income support.

Phillip Vittle, 61, of The Close, Portskewett, appeared at Cardiff Crown Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to the charge of dishonestly making a false representation between July 2004 and November 2009.

Vittle made the plea on June 26 this year, the day he was due to stand trial for the offence.

Prosecuting, Nuhu Gobir said Vittle had been overpaid by £8,589.44 in income support after failing to declare to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that he was receiving a civil service pension .

Mr Gobir said Vittle had originally started claiming income support in March 2000 after claiming he was unable to work due to illhealth.

He then completed a review form on March 16, 2001, to continue claiming the benefit.

After receiving information the DWP carried out a joint investigation with the council in November 2009 and discovered Vittle had the pension, which had started on February 13, 2001. This had not been declared to theDWP.

Vittle was interviewed and said other people helped him fill out the forms as he suffers from dyslexia and that he received a small pension after working for the Forestry Commission.

When asked why he hadn’t declared the pension, he said he’d “never thought of it”.

Defending, Hugh Wallace said the case hadn’t been fraudulent from the outset due to the pension not “kicking in” straightaway.

The court heard Vittle is making weekly payments fromhis pension credit to pay back the overpayment and has so far paid back £885, although Mr Wallace said this figure was higher.

Judge David Wynn Morgan said: “What you did was a wicked thing.”

He added that he felt Vittle understood what he had done and other types of punishment would not be suitable in this case.