A RESPECTED chairman of a municipal golf course resigned after being caught by Department of Social Security officers giving false employment records, a court heard last week.

Godfrey Hammond, 55, resigned from his unpaid post of chairman of the Hobson golf course, Stanley, after he was caught paying a barmaid, who was still claiming benefits.

Consett magistrates heard that Hammond, of Larkspur Close, Tanfield Lea, near Stanley, failed to declare in a signed declaration to DSS officers that he was employing the barmaid.

The former chairman, who resigned in order to protect the good name of the golf course and The Fairways public house on the premises, also admitted to paying the single mother direct from the till.

But magistrates agreed to take into account seven separate references on Hammond's behalf, including one from Willow Burn Hospice, which praised him for his charity work.

The court also heard that Hammond had no previous convictions.

Robert Scott, defending, said: "Mr Hammond is a highly regarded man of integrity, dependable, a family man, hard-working and trustworthy.

"Those are not words I got from Mr Hammond but from the many references on his behalf.

"He thought he had no option but to resign as chairman from the club which meant everything to him.

"Since Mr Hammond's wife died in 1998 it is fair to say the club was the focus of his life. He would work in a bakery from 5am and then go straight to the club to work unpaid but now has nothing to do with the club.

"This is a one-off and will never happen again and it has had a profound effect on him. He is no longer the out-going person described in those references."

Hammond, who admitted making a false representation to the DSS, was fined £200 and ordered to pay £150 costs.

The land used by the golf club is still owned by Derwentside District Council but the running of it was handed over to a consortium of club members earlier this year.