An Elstree man who fraudulently claimed housing benefit to help pay the £300 weekly rent for his detached house in Park Crescent escaped a jail sentence last week.

Hamid Vakilzadeh,49, who defrauded Hertsmere Borough Council out of £4,626 in housing and council tax benefit, had been warned by Watford magistrates he faced a jail sentence when he pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges of defrauding the council in June 1999 and June 2000.

But sentencing Vakilzadeh last Tuesday, Hemel Hempstead magistrates ordered that he complete a six-month community rehabilitation order, and repay the council £1,800 at a rate of £100 per month.

The council also intends to seek repayments from Vakilzadeh of a further £2,786 through the civil court.

Vakilzadeh was investigated by the council when it received information in January last year, that a soft-furnishing business was being run from his garage and that his wife, Sharareh Vakilzadeh, was also living at the house.

On claim forms in June 1999 and June 2000, Vakilzadeh, a refugee from Iran in the 1970s, had stated that he was not working, had separated from his wife and lived with his two daughters.

Vakilzadeh collected around £144 benefit each week towards the rent of his house and paid the rest of the rent with money from his family in Iran, magistrates at the earlier hearing had been told.