A MAN who fraudulently claimed more than £820 in housing benefit and had to be arrested on a warrant will have to pay back more than £2,000.

Scott Tutty, 29, of Alice Smith Square in Littlemore, failed to report changes in circumstances and also wrongfully obtained credit on his claims.

The charges related to a period in early November 2011 while he was living at a previous address at Barton in Oxford.

Tutty, who had earlier been found guilty in his absence after failing to turn up at a hearing in July, was sentenced at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Monday after being arrested on a warrant.

He had been charged with dishonestly failing to report a change in circumstance and four counts of dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit in relation to his claims for housing benefit.

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He was fined £630 and ordered to pay £600 costs after being found guilty of four chargess of benefit fraud.

Tutty was caught after data matching – a system that compares bank, income and tax statements – identified he cashed cheques for money to which he was not entitled.

As a result he had wrongly claimed more than £820 in housing benefit.

As well as having to pay £1,230 fine and costs, including a £30 victims’ surcharge, Tutty will also have to pay back all the money he wrongly claimed.

The case was brought by South Oxfordshire District Council, which paid out the benefits.

The council's cabinet member for finance, William Hall, said: “This case represents the very essence of why you should not try to play the system.

“The amount this man now has to pay out in fines, costs and repayments is significantly more than he was ever able to get away with wrongly claiming.”

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