A great-grandfather conned his way to £27,000 in benefits as he lived in Thailand with his new wife, a court heard.

David Martindale, 63, claimed three different state handouts on the grounds that he lived alone in Giles Avenue, Tang Hall, York, said James Lake, prosecuting for the Department of Work and Pensions.

In reality, he spent most of his time in Thailand with his wife, and their family of three, supporting them on British taxpayers' money.

But an anonymous phone call tipped off the authorities and the great-grandfather turned benefit scrounger ended up facing a jail term in the dock at York Crown Court.

"The total amount you had unlawfully is quite considerable," Judge Stephen Ashurst told him.

"I have to mark this deliberate conduct of failure to notify the change of your circumstances with a prison sentence, but I am going to suspend that sentence to take account of your guilty plea and the personal mitigation.

"Part of the rationale is that by retaining your liberty you are going to be in a better position in the long-term to pay off your debt to the community."

Martindale originally brought his Thai bride Nitya Kaswangsa, now believed to be 30, to York in 2001 and the pair married at the city's register office.

But life in Tang Hall soured for Nitya. She became fed-up and moved back to Thailand.

Defence barrister David Ward said Martindale had already repaid half the money and was repaying the rest.

Martindale, of Giles Avenue, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to three charges of benefit fraud.

He was jailed for six months, suspended for 12 months on condition that he does 200 hours' unpaid work.

He must also pay the prosecution's £250 costs.

Mr Lake said Martindale started claiming housing benefit and council tax benefit in 2002 and was awarded pension credit in addition in April 2004. The authorities believed he lived alone in Giles Avenue.

But in reality between January 2004 and May 2007 he spent 29 months out of 42 in Thailand and a police raid found long-term visas granted by the Thai consulate in Britain in Martindale's York address.

He could only claim the benefits provided he spent less than four weeks living abroad.

The authorities also heard he had fitted a carpet in England for cash in hand in 2006. In total, Martindale got £15,499.80 in pension credit, £9,750.85 in housing benefit and £2,332.25 in council tax benefit he was not entitled to.

Mr Ward said Nitya Kaswangsa originally lived in this country, but could not cope with British life, so returned to her own country. Martindale spent the money supporting her, paying school fees and on air fares to and from Bangkok.

The couple had a six-year old child and she had a 12-year-old child by a previous marriage and a 13-year-old adopted child.

His benefit claim was originally honest, but once he realised he had broken the rules by living in Thailand, he did not have the honesty to admit it to the authorities.

He had four daughters by his first marriage, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.