A MAN who worked in a warehouse while claiming incapacity benefit was put on probation for 12 months by Blackburn magistrates.

Joseph Anthony Coulter, 31, of Silloth Close, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to four offences of making false representation to obtain benefit.

He was ordered to pay £150 costs.

David Griffith, defending, said that, having got himself into a mess, Coulter had compounded the situation by not taking the administrative penalty offered by the DSS.

Coulter was offered the opportunity to pay a penalty of one third of the overpayment of £418, which would have prevented court proceedings.

"He was working and he would have had to take time off to go and set up the administrative penalty," said Mr Griffiths.

"He did not want his boss to know and rather than face up to the problem he stuck his head in the sand."

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