A POPPY-selling veteran was thrown out of a supermarket after customers complained because they recognised him as a convicted benefits cheat.

Bernard McCartin, the former mayor of Horwich, was given an eight-week suspended jail sentence in February when he admitted falsely claiming £18,000 of benefits over a four-year period.

On Tuesday, the 67-year-old set up his stall in Asda, Middlebrook, to sell poppies for the Royal British Legion’s annual remembrance appeal, as he has done for the past four years.

He and his wife, Lynne, aged 50, had been sitting at the table for about two hours when a member of staff, accompanied by a security guard, approached him.

Mr McCartin said: “One of the managers said ‘We’ve had a few complaints about my past and we’re going to have to ask you to leave’.

“I didn’t argue with them. I just packed up and left. I couldn’t get out quick enough because I nearly lost my rag. I was absolutely gobsmacked.”

Asda said the store received six complaints about Mr McCartin in the first 40 minutes he was there.

Asked about those who complained, he said: “I think they’re petty-minded.”

He says of his benefit cheat conviction: “It’s all over with. It’s finished. Done. Forgotten.”

Mr McCartin proudly wears the medal he received for his service with the Royal Observer Corps in the 1960s as well as his veterans badge and a badge he received as a special constable in the 1970s.

He is the Royal British Legion’s Horwich branch representative and the parade marshall for Horwich’s remembrance Sunday march.

He said: “I collect for the poppy appeal every year. I do it because I’ve been a serving member of the forces and I’m putting back into society.

“I love what I’m doing for the services, and I’m proud of our soldiers.”

Mr McCartin had arranged to collect at Asda every day this week, and he was there all day Monday without any problems. He has already filled about 30 tins this year, all of which are sealed.

Mr McCartin said: “I’ve got paperwork for all the tins. Every penny is accounted for.”

An Asda spokesman said: “Because of Mr McCartin’s conviction earlier in the year, a number of customers expressed concerns about him when they saw him collecting in store.

“We asked him to leave while we investigated.”

Kevin McGuire, the RBL’s Greater Manchester community fundraiser, said: “Asda are supporters of the poppy appeal, they always have been. What they do in their store is up to them.

“Bernard is doing this as a sort of recompense and I think if it had been explained to Asda, they might have taken a different viewpoint.”

The RBL is arranging for another collector at Asda.

julian.thorpe@theboltonnews.co.uk