A FORMER parish councillor who claimed benefits for six years despite having savings of almost £90,000 in the bank was jailed for six months today.

Robert Gleed, 68, of Manor Cottages, Condicote, near Stow-on-the-Wold, started claiming housing benefit and council tax benefit when he retired from Thames Water in 2007 because of ill health. He claimed he had only £6,500 in the bank. Anyone with more than £16,000 in savings is not eligible for benefits.

But he actually had £87,402 invested at the time he made the claim - and that rose to £89,096 the following month, said prosecutor Simon Burns at Gloucester crown court.

He said Gleed continued to claim benefits for the next few years and had been paid £43,336 to which he was not entitled by the time he was caught.

Gleed, a former trade union official and an assistant Cotswolds snow warden, pleaded guilty to dishonestly making a false representation to obtain housing benefit and council tax benefit from Cotswold District Council on November 8, 2007.

The charge stated that he obtained the benefits by failing to disclose that he had a capital sum above the limit for eligibility.

Jailing Gleed, Judge William Hart told him: "You are 68 and have never been in any trouble before. But what makes this a particularly serious example of this kind of offending, which is so prevalent these days, is that it was fraudulent from the start.

"Very deliberately and rather wickedly you hid a very substantial amount of savings. You knew full well that if you had disclosed your true financial position you would not have been entitled to any benefits at all."

Since being caught Gleed had repaid a 'drop in the ocean' of just over £4,000, Mr Burns said.

Gareth James, defending, said Gleed now had 'very little' money left - just a few hundred pounds. But Judge Hart pointed out that Gleed had given £60,000 to his son which had been used to buy a house.

Mr James said: "He worked hard throughout his life. He was employed for 32 years by Thames Water. He was also a trade union representative. In addition he has spent time as a parish councillor. He has spent a lot of his own time and effort assisting with work around the village in which he lives.

"This is an aberration. He is very ashamed of himself."