A benefits cheat who conned thousands of pounds from local taxpayers has been jailed as a warning to others trying to cheat the system.

George Allan, 59, falsely claimed £21,227 in council tax benefit and income support over five years despite being employed full-time as a labourer on a building site.

Allan, whose address is given as South Avenue in Kidlington but lives in a caravan near Wolvercote, was jailed on Monday at Oxford Crown Court after admitting two counts of benefit fraud.

Sentencing Allan to eight months inside Judge David Morton Jack said: "This is clearly necessary as a deterrent to others who are minded to cheat the system."

The court was told Allan made false claims for five years starting in 2001.

Prosecuting, David Jones, said during that time Allan was earning up to £10,000 a year working between 36 and 45 hours a week.

When quizzed he claimed he thought it was fine to earn £200 a week without declaring employment to the benefits office, Mr Jones added.

Allan also claimed to send all the money to an ill daughter living in Newcastle.

Sophie Murray, defending, said Allan is now out of work due to a bad back and living on incapacity benefit.

She added: "He did not use the money he was receiving for a luxurious lifestyle. It was used in order to assist his daughter who was unable to work.

"Since he stopped sending money to his daughter there has been no contact from her.

"He still lives in a caravan in a field with no running water or electricity and doesn't appear to have benefited from the money."

Allan has been paying back £13 a week since being caught and will be 90-years-old by the time he has paid off the debt.

Judge Morton Jack said: "This is sadly a typical example of substantial benefit fraud.

"Your claims were false from the start. You knew exactly what you were doing which was implied in your guilty plea.

"This was a miserable and quite deliberate fraud of the public. I do not believe you can have sent all the proceeds of your fraud to your daughter."

Allan was given eight months jail term for each count of benefit fraud to run concurrently with no extra charge for costs.

Carol Quainton, Investigations Manager at Oxford City Council, said: "We are pleased with the outcome of today's case.

"People who cheat the system are stealing from the tax payer and are restricting the amount of funds available to those who are in genuine need.

"We hope that the public are becoming more aware that we will take action and that if we are given false information or not told when their circumstances change, that they could be prosecuted.

"It means not only that they have to pay the money back but they would have a criminal record."