AN old soldier who fiddled more than £14,000 through the benefits system has been told to keep on paying the money back until he is more than 99 years old.

Michael Smith, 75, of Knightstone Grange, Hythe, admitted to New Forest magistrates that he had falsely claimed £14,108.31 in housing and council tax benefits.

New Forest District Council solicitor Natalie Heaselden explained that he had failed to declare on his benefit applications that he was receiving occupational pensions from the Army and Ministry of Defence as well as his state pension.

He pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining benefits worth £5,605.80 between February 1996 and January 1998 and he also asked the court to take into consideration other false claims which brought in £8,502.51 between October 1992 and December 1995.

The bench ordered that he should repay the money at £50 per month, which is set to take him up to March 2023, by which time he will be just 11 months short of his 100th birthday.

Outside the court, he said: "I am glad it has all been cleared up."

And he agreed that he would be happy if he was still fit and able to pay the money when he's 99.

But defending solicitor Terri Connor pointed out that he had given outstanding military service to his country as a soldier for 22 years, which included the Second World War.

She also pointed out that he had suffered in recent years, losing his wife in 1982, having a breakdown in relationships with his son around that time and having to endure an operation for cancer of the stomach in 1996.

She also pointed out that he had been of good character all his life and stressed that being in court was a punishment in itself.

In explaining that there was no other penalty than the repayment, bench chairman Peter Molyneaux said: "Clearly these are serious offences of benefit fraud. But there are a number of special circumstances in your case."

A spokesperson for Age Concern declined to comment on individual cases, but said: "The problem we have is not to do with older people claiming too much.

"It is the older people who fail to claim benefits they are entitled to - in particular, the 700,000 older people who do not claim income support. For those older people living on limited incomes, even a small amount of income can open up a range of other benefits."

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