A FORMER Sheppey councillor convicted of a benefits scam walked free from court today so that the taxpayer should not have to foot the bill for a jail sentence.

David Cassidy was instead hit by a £21,673 financial penalty after a judge at Maidstone Crown Court said it was clear that the amount could easily be met.

Cassidy's offences involved making false declarations when claiming over £6,000 in benefit and job seeker’s allowance. He pleaded not guilty.

Judge David Croft, QC, told the 55-year-old ex-Labour councillor: “I fine you rather than send you to prison because I don’t see why the taxpayer should have to shell out even more. There is a certain irony in that you have been a councillor while stealing from those taxpayers you represented.”

Cassidy, of Alsager Road, Queenborough, was fined £13,250 and ordered to pay £6,423 defence costs and £2,000 prosecution costs.

He was a Sheppey borough councillor from 1998 to this year and membership secretary for Sheerness Labour Party from 1996 to 1998.