A FORMER police firearms officer who protected Tony Blair has been ordered to pay £38,629 back to the state because of fraudulent benefit claims.

Vaughan Dodds, who guarded the former Prime Minister’s constituency home, was told by Judge Simon Hickey, sitting at Teesside Crown Court, that he faced 18 months in prison in default if he did not pay the cash by October 31.

Dodds, who was given a two and-a-half year jail sentence in October last year, was given special permission to attend the proceeds of crime hearing.

Judge Hickey agreed that the benefit figure – what Dodds had made by criminal means – was £64,461.

However the full sum was said not to be available. The cash that was available, in the form of the share of a house, now sold, and a BMW car is understood to be already subject to a restraining order by the authorities.

Dodds, 46, of Gardners Place, Langley Moor, County Durham, along with his wife Mandy, claimed tens of thousands of pounds by lying or exaggerating illnesses they suffered from.

Meanwhile, investigators from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) discovered they enjoyed many family cruises and holidays with their son and daughter to places like Florida and Egypt.

While the couple claimed benefits for hardship and disability, they had £180,000 in the bank, took out gym membership and spent more than £25,000 at hotels and restaurants in six years.

Their children went to fee-paying schools, and payments totalling £35,000 were made to health and beauty salons.

Dodds, who was left £250,000 in his father’s will, claimed his ME meant he could barely walk without support and his wife’s hearing condition meant she could not even bear the sound of toilet tissue being ripped from a roll.

But both led full and active lives, even going on a motorcycle course together, while Mrs Dodds, who was not charged since her husband did all the form filling, was seen noisily blow-drying a customer’s hair at a family salon, despite her apparent difficulties.

Vaughan Dodds was convicted last year of nine of 12 counts of making dishonest claims for Disability Living Allowance, Income Support, Council Tax benefit and housing relief - totalling more than £56,000.

The judge in his trial, Recorder Graham Cook, said his abuse of the benefits system was made worse by the fact he had previously been a serving police officer and said the public would “expect more” of him.

He also said more than most he should have known the difference between right and wrong.

A DWP spokesman said: “Only a small minority of benefit claimants try to cheat the system, but cases like this show how we are rooting out benefit fraudsters and will always seek to recover the money stolen from taxpayers.”