An Ealing man has been jailed for 20 months for a £63,000 benefit fraud.

Ealing Council brought Brian Moore before the courts after discovering he had failed to declare that he received a compensation payment of £100,000 in 2001 and a further £10,000 in 2005.

In 2002, Mr Moore bought a property in Majorca but also failed to declare this to the council or Jobcentre Plus.

He subsequently received over £63,000 Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and Jobseekers Allowance to which he was not entitled up to 2009.

Moore was sentenced to 20 months in custody on Friday, 11 November 2011 at Isleworth Crown Court. This followed a trial lasting more than two weeks, where Mr Moore was found guilty of five counts of dishonestly obtaining benefit under the Social Security Administration Act, 1992, and one further count under the Fraud Act, 2006, of dishonest representation.

Mr Moore was immediately remanded in custody at the end of the trial on 12 October 2011 to await sentencing.

The court rejected Moore’s defence that he had informed the authorities of his changes of circumstance, and his claim documents and records had subsequently been maliciously altered.

Councillor Yvonne Johnson, cabinet member for finance and performance, said: "The fact this man has received a 20-month prison sentence for his benefit cheating shows just how serious this offence is. Benefit fraud is not something we take lightly and I hope this sentence will show that it’s certainly not worth making fraudulent claims."