A MAN who had a life sentence for murdering a police officer quashed has admitted claiming more than £3,700 in benefits while working.

Philip English, now 29, was freed from prison in 1997, four years after being convicted of the murder of Sergeant Bob Forth in Sunniside, near Gateshead.

Law Lords said jailing the then 15-year-old had been a miscarriage of justice because he was 100 yards away when 25-year-old Paul Weddle stabbed the officer to death.

English was jailed under the "joint enterprise" law that meant he need not have to deliver the fatal blow to be guilty because he had been involved in disorder prior to the killing.

Both defendants had been drinking and had taken temazepam tablets and became involved in a fracas with the police officers.

After hitting Sgt Forth with a piece of wood, English was chased for about 100 yards by the other officer before he was arrested and handcuffed.

Weddle was still fighting with Sgt Forth and pulled out a knife and fatally stabbed him nine times.

English, of Wylam Road, Shield Row, Stanley, County Durham, appeared before Durham Magistrates' Court yesterday and admitted claiming £3,733 in income support, housing and council tax benefit while working as a labourer for a scaffolding company between August 31, 2004 and March 18, 2005.

Alan Devine, prosecuting on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions, said English initially forgot to declare he was working, but later admitted making a mistake by failing to stop claiming benefits.

He said: "It got out of hand like any petty theft."

In November 2005, English was given a 12-month community rehabilitation order after admitting affray in pub in Stanley.

He told the court he was not now working but was hoping to enrol on a college course to study art.

He said: "I apologise for what I have done. It was wrong and I accept responsibility for it."

Marion Holloway, the chairwoman of the bench, sentenced him to a six-month community rehabilitation order and ordered him to pay £140 prosecution costs.

She told him she considered benefit fraud to be a very serious offence but added: "We hope the Probation Service will steer you towards enrolling on a college course and help get your life back on track."