A grandfather started fiddling benefits within weeks of signing on when he took a part-time job as a removals man.

Keith Bloor, 59, started off going to work with his son-in-law as a way of keeping him busy but was soon taken on to work 16 hours a week.

He failed to tell anyone about his job and went on to swindle £35,000 from the taxpayer over five years, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Bloor, of Mill Road, Barnstaple, admitted three offences of benefit fraud and was jailed for six months, suspended for two years and made subject to a weekend night time curfew for six months.

Sean Brunton, prosecuting, said the bulk of the overpayment was in income support but £10,000 was paid in housing benefits and £2,600 in council tax benefits by North Devon District Council.

Mr Brunton said Bloor had repaid £1,000 and the rest was to be clawed back piecemeal over time.

Richard Crabb, defending, said Bloor did not set out to “milk the system” and the irony was that he would have been entitled to some benefits because he was only working 16 hours a week.

Mr Crabb said: “He had a breakdown in 2005 and afterwards his son-in-law, who works at the firm, started taking him with him to get him out of the house and give him a sense of self worth.

“He would potter about the removals company and in the end they took him on, working 16 hours a week and sometimes more.”