A RETIRED Bradford bus driver has been ordered to pay back more than £54,000 he fraudulently claimed in a nine year benefit fraud.

Mohammed Bhatti, 63, of Roydstone Road, Thornbury, was jailed for six months in November last year for cheating the taxpayer by failing to declare income from rented property.

Yesterday, Judge Robert Bartfield made a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act to claw back Bhatti's ill-gotten gains.

He ruled that Bhatti's benefit from dishonesty was £56,258 and the available amount he could pay back was £54,227.

He must pay up within six months or face an 18 month prison sentence.

Bhatti, who walks with the aid of a stick, was assisted by a Punjabi interpreter at yesterday's hearing at Bradford Crown Court.

At the original hearing, he pleaded guilty to two charges of dishonestly making a false statement to obtain income support and council tax benefit.

He failed to declare he owned a house in Heath Terrace, Bradford Moor, for which he received rental income.

Prosecutor, Clare Walsh, said then that Bhatti had owned the house since 1981, but had not declared it when he first started to claim benefits in 2004.

Between April 2004 and November 2011, he was paid £38,485 in income support, to which he was not entitled because of his second property.

Between April 2004 and March 2013, Bhatti was said to have been overpaid £8,370 in council tax benefit.

The court heard that he had made the claims on the basis he was unfit for work, signing forms to say he did not own any additional property or receive any rent.

"This was fraudulent from the outset, and carried out over a long period of time," Mrs Walsh said.

Barrister Shufqat Khan, for Bhatti, said he came to the UK, and Bradford, in 1965, working in the textile industry and then as a bus driver, before retiring in 2003 owing to ill-health.

In November, Bhatti had already starting repaying the money at £64 per fortnight.

Jailing Bhatti, Judge Bartfield described him as a "hitherto honest and hard-working man."