A Birkenhead man who cheated the state out of tens of thousands of pounds has been placed under part-time house arrest until early next year.

A judge imposed an electronically monitored curfew on Justin Jones for 12 hours a day starting at 7pm each night for six months and also sentenced him to ten months' imprisonment suspended for two years.

He warned Jones, who admitted dishonestly obtaining £30,460, over eight and a half years, that it would be up to him whether he decided to serve the prison sentence by breaching any of the court's orders.

Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, also told him, "You owe a massive debt to society. The best way can you repay that is by performing 200 hours unpaid work."

Imposing the curfew, he said that while Jones was sitting at home unable to go away on holiday this summer or go out with family and friends over the Christmas period, he should pause to reflect that it was because "you were bleeding the state."

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Jones, began claiming housing benefit and council tax benefit from July 2000 from Wirral Council for his home in Kirkfield Grove.

He said he was a single tenant in receipt of Jobseekers' Allowance but by December 2001 he was maintaining a common household with a woman who was working, but he did not tell the authorities, said Martin Reed, prosecuting.

Investigations began after suspicions were aroused in February 2011 and it was found that the woman had given the address as her own and as cohabiting with Jones.

When interviewed by DWP investigators later that year he said they were not living together but she was "an old family friend who helped him out."

44-year-old Jones pleaded guilty to four offences of benefit fraud and had six similar offences taken into consideration.