A LEGLESS Gypsy busker who bragged on national TV about "milking the benefits system" had to face the music when confronted by an irate viewer.

Viorel Dinu, 25, told Channel 5's 'Gypsies on Benefits and Proud' he and other Romanians came to the UK as it was a "soft touch"? for scroungers, a court heard.

But his comments caught up with him when he began playing his accordion in a busy York shopping street.

Ex-soldier Mark Hawksby, 34, claimed there was so much money in the busker's coat that he tripped over it on the pavement.

He turned to find Dinu, who has no legs, sitting on a skateboard and grinning and recognised him immediately, York magistrates heard.

Hawksby told the court: "I had a go at him. I said 'You're out of order for going on this TV programme and saying you can milk the system.

"I admit I raised my voice - but after he started laughing at me. I'm an ex-soldier - ten to 12 years ago. I was three years in the Army and served with the Ghurkas, Fijians and all races.

"If he had been an Englishman, Welshman or Scotsman I would have had the same f?eelings."

The court heard Hawksby threw the Romanian's coat into the gutter in Coney Street, sending the money flying before hurling the accordian into the road, saying: "This is English money for English people."

Dinu, who says he lost his legs after being run over by a train as a child, did not report the incident and failed to co-operate with police.

Hawksby, arrested after his picture was taken by a passer-by, told officers: "He is milking the system and it winds me up."

Hawksby, of St Mary's Close, Wigginton, near York, denied racially aggravated threatening beha?viour but was convicted.

He was given a four month suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay £100 costs and £80 surcharge.

Neal Kutte, defending, said: "He was annoyed this man was claiming money when he should not have been. It was nothing to do with his nationality."

But Prosecutor Neil Holdsworth successfully argued: "The target of the abuse was a foreign national and therefore it's a racial incident."