A “THOROUGHLY dishonest” builder and former landlord has avoided an immediate return to jail for his latest large-scale benefit fraud, because he is 61 and cannot walk far.

Geoffrey Laverack has now cheated York’s tax and council tax payers out of £60,000 by making false claims over 12 years.

“You are, I am sorry to say, a thoroughly dishonest man,” Judge Roger Ibbotson said as he passed sentence for the most recent offences, worth a total of nearly £20,000.

The judge said: “It means the burden falls on the shoulder of respectable taxpayers and those who do pay their dues.”

Laverack returned to benefit fraud a year after being released partway through a jail sentence for what the then Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, called “a carefully-contrived, long-running housing benefit fraud”.

City of York Council said in court in 2001 that Laverack, then a landlord, netted £43,000 between 1995 and 1998 in benefits for non-existent tenants by using other people’s identities without their knowledge.

Laverack said the figure was £37,000. He was jailed for 30 months and released in 2002.

Prosecuting yesterday at York Crown Court, Howard Shaw said that in July 2003 Laverack began lying to both the council and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) as he claimed three different benefits while working as a self-employed builder.

His applications were rejected on more than one occasion, but he repeated his claims and eventually cheated his way to £19,893.42 of public money over four years. During the same period, a bank account he hid from the authorities received deposits of up to £17,000 a time.

Laverack, of Spruce Close, New Earswick, pleaded guilty to 19 charges of benefit fraud committed between July 29, 2003, and June 21, 2007, involving income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

The judge suspended a 40-week prison sentence for two years because of Laverack’s age and a medical condition that makes it difficult for him to walk more than 200 yards.

The judge imposed conditions that Laverack does 100 hours’ unpaid work and 12 months’ supervision and does not commit more crimes, and ordered him to pay £10,497.14 compensation to the council and £6,846.75 compensation to the DWP.

Laverack’s solicitor advocate Colin Byrne said his client had been declared bankrupt and was “overwhelmed with debt” after his release from prison and because he was ill he received income support.

The court was told his initial benefit claims had been genuine, but then they turned fraudulent. He was remorseful.