A CABBIE has been sentenced to 100 hours' community punishment for cheating Crawley Borough Council out of thousands in benefits.

Faisal Shafiq, of Dione Walk, Bewbush, continued claiming benefits even though he was working as a taxi driver.

He was sentenced at Crawley Magistrates' Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty at a previous hearing to failing to notify a change in circumstances.

Leo Nwoye, prosecuting for the council, said that Shafiq had started work as a private hire driver in Redhill in April 2005, but did not tell the council that he had done so.As a result he was overpaid a total of £2,933.83.

Shafiq was also ordered to pay £600 towards the council's costs.The overpayment is being repaid.

Crawley's resources director David Covill said after the hearing that the council always took a very serious view of people who obtained benefit when they were not entitled to it.

"We are committed to detecting and prosecuting people who commit benefit fraud," he said. "Any claimant whose circumstances change should contact us immediately."

The council has a corporate fraud investigations team which works to prevent, detect and investigate all fraud committed against the council.

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