A BRADFORD grandfather who fleeced the taxpayer out of more than £26,000 after failing to declare that his wife was working as a dinner lady has been spared an immediate prison sentence.

Anthony Thornton, 69, who hobbled into the dock on a wooden walking stick, dishonestly pocketed the money over an 11 year period, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Thornton, a retired textile worker, of Park House Road, Low Moor, pleaded guilty to three offences of cheating the Department of Work and Pensions out of £26,343 in Income Support and Pension credits, between 2003 and July last year.

Prosecutor Mark Brookes said the offences were fraudulent from the outset.

Thornton filled in forms saying that neither he nor his wife were in paid employment.

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Mrs Thornton worked as a dinner lady at Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College in Buttershaw, Bradford, Mr Brookes said.

Thornton admitted his guilt at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court but his case was committed to the Crown Court because he was being pursued by the Proceeds of Crime Agency.

His barrister, Lorraine Harris, said District Judge Susan Bouch, sitting at the magistrates court, had been considering sentencing him to a conditional discharge.

Thornton was of previous good character, without even a speeding or parking ticket to his name.

He suffered from severe arthritis and had had knee and hip replacements. He was diabetic and needed a shoulder replacement.

Mrs Thornton was also in poor health and the couple had been in "a living nightmare" since the letter from benefit investigators.

The couple have three children and four grandchildren, the court heard.

Miss Harris said Mrs Thornton worked just one and a half hours a day in term time. She had blamed herself for her husband getting into trouble.

"He has never owed a penny in his life and he intends to pay it all back," she said.

Thornton was "naive and truly sorry".

He was paying back the money at £25 a week.

The judge, Recorder Peter Babb, said Thornton had lied several times on the benefit claim form during a fraud that had run for 11 years.

But he had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. He was of previous good character and neither he nor his wife were very well.

Thornton was sentenced to 18 weeks imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.

Recorder Babb set a Proceeds of Crime confiscation timetable, with a directions hearing fixed for October 20.