A 38-year-old Oldbury father who fiddled nearly £45,000 in benefits while he was in full time employment has escaped jail.

Wayne Meek started claiming incapacity benefits in 2003 after telling the Department of Work and Pensions he was unable to work because of illness and disability.

But all the time he was doing 40 hours a week for his employers and halfway through his fraud he even changed his job, said Mr Fazzad Afzal prosecuting.

He said Meek also claimed housing and council tax benefits while holding down his job and, over a six and a half year period, he fraudulently obtained a total of £44,717.

Meek of Edmunds Road admitted five charges of making a false representation to obtain benefits between October 2003 and April 2010.

He was given a 12 month jail term suspended for two years and also ordered to carry out 250 hours Community Punishment.

Judge Rosalind Bush told him that at no time during the period of the fraud had he made any attempt to notify the Department of the true position.

She said she did not accept the argument he had been claiming the money to help support his family after his divorce because they were also in receipt of state benefits.

Mr Afzal said that after his arrest Meek told investigating officers he wanted to see if he could work with his back problem and things then just went "on and on."

Miss Heidi Kubik defending said Meek who maintained he was struggling financially after his divorce was a good father who was "trying in the wrong way to provide for his children."

She told Wolverhampton Crown Court that Meek was now making repayments of £145 a month back to the Department.