A BURY man convicted of housing benefit fraud has been given a six months prison sentence suspended for two years.
Shah Nawaz, of Massey Street, appeared before Bolton Crown Court where he was found guilty, after a four day trial, of four offences of false accounting.
The jury was told £8,700 in benefits were paid after Nawaz stated that he was renting the house he was living in.
Bury Council staff discovered the property had been transferred to Nawaz's daughter in 1997 and she was living there with him and his family.
Following pre-sentence and medical reports, Judge Gillian Ruaux told Nawaz that while the offences were serious and deserved a custodial sentence, she was suspending that sentence because of the "wholly exceptional" pressures and stress which Nawaz had been under.
In addition to the suspended prison term, he was ordered to pay £200 towards the authority's costs and will also have to repay the money.
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