A MAN was yesterday jailed for adopting his brother’s identity to claim his benefits while he was on the run abroad.

Ryan Burn, 33, purported to be his older brother, Rory, and even changed the address the benefits were to be sent, to enable him to receive his sibling’s previously genuine Income Support payments of nearly £100 a week in his absence.

Durham Crown Court heard that over the course of more than six years Burn received £26,632 to which he was not entitled.

His brother, now 34, fled to Spain in 2004 before he was due to stand trial for assaulting two men outside a Chester-le-Street pub, the previous year.

The trial went ahead in his absence and he was convicted of assault causing grievous bodily harm with intent and assault causing actual bodily harm, as well as possessing an offensive weapon.

He received a four-year prison sentence, also in his absence, but it was recently activated, with six months added for breaching bail, after he was finally brought back before the court.

It followed his arrest by Durham Police after they discovered his whereabouts in Spain last year.

Having previously denied the charges, 33-year-old Ryan Burn, of Edenfield, Stanley, admitted three counts of making a false statement to obtain benefit.

Stephen Duffield, mitigating, told the court: “Although he was in work, he did have problems due to his excessive cocaine habit which he could not properly afford.”

But Mr Duffield said Burn has now conquered that addiction, while also curbing the amount he drinks.

“He’s not a man who has otherwise shown himself to be dishonest, but the cause for that dishonesty now seems to be under control,” added Mr Duffield.

Jailing him for ten months, Judge Peter Kelson said tax payers would be “outraged” if someone who used £26,632 of public money to fund a drug habit was given anything other than a prison sentence.