A benefit cheat took more than £3,000 from the Department of Social Security, after claiming he did not have a job, while working at a club.

John Halcrow, 55, of Cheshire Grove, South Shields, claimed £3,200 in incapacity benefit in ten months, while working as a club concert chairman.

Halcrow was earning about £100 a week in the post, which he started in October, 1999. He had suffered a heart attack and stroke.

The former timber worker said he saw the job at Simonside Club as a personal interest rather than work, and used it as a way of getting out of the house.

Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to two charges of making false representations to obtain benefit at Newcastle Crown Court.

Halcrow, who now lives on disability living allowance, is repaying the £3,200 in instalments.

He was fined £400 and ordered to pay £100 costs