A MAN who hopes to become a teacher has been convicted of a benefits scam.
Simon Hyde, of Yew Tree Avenue, Saughall, denied a charge of failing to report a change in his circumstances which would affect his benefit. He had been overpaid £2,800.
However he was convicted at Flintshire Magistrates Court and was given a two year conditional discharge. He was also ordered to pay £1,100 costs.
Magistrates heard that Hyde, 40, was setting up a lettings agency and was doing a computer science course with the intention of becoming a teacher.
The court heard Hyde had been claiming jobseekers’ allowance, housing benefit and council tax benefit since April 2010, initially from St David’s Terrace in Saltney.
He told the court he was being evicted from a property that he owned at Yew Tree Avenue in Saughall.
The prosecution accepted that was genuine at the time but investigations showed the house was not repossessed and that he remained the owner and received rental income from lodgers.
He had also failed to declare earnings from temporary employment and did not report he was no longer renting accommodation for himself, but had returned to his own home.
The investigation showed he had no entitlement to benefits and he had been overpaid a total of £2,877.
Magistrates heard it was being repaid by regular payments.