A HEALTH and safety advisor who cheated a recruitment agency out of more than £8,000 was spared jail after a court heard the money was used to pay his son’s violent drug supplier.

Paul Price claimed cash from an agency without doing the work and gave his 19-year-old son Christopher £600 to £1,000 a week to pay back the £7,000 he owed. Christopher Price told the court he and his family were put in fear because he owed thousands of pounds to dealers.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Paul Price, 49, had himself been attacked by a gang and left crippled. He hobbled into the dock on crutches on Thursday to be sentenced for stealing £8,100 and attempting to steal £1,903.

Jane Scotchmer, prosecuting, said Price, of Merivale Grove, Chatham, was a contractor paid by an agency to carry out work for Balfour Beattie.

The company refused to pay the agency after learning Price had submitted time sheets for a period he had not worked.

Robert Flach, defending, said, in 2006, Price’s son was on crack cocaine and being threatened.

“A friend of his had been severely beaten up by the dealer,” said Mr Flach. “The boy’s family had been threatened. He turned to his father.”

Mr Flach said it did not stop the father being attacked. He suffered a cracked skull and lumber injuries and would probably be crippled for life.

Judge O’Mahony told Price: “I accept that, richly though you deserve to go to prison because this is a breach of trust with outrageous lies, what the dealer was doing to your son was serious crime."

Price’s crime, he said, just fell on the side of the law where a 12-month prison sentence could be suspended for two years, plus 12 months’ supervision.

Christopher Price told Judge James O’Mahony he started smoking “weed” when he was 14 and progressed to cocaine at a cost of up to £500 a week.

“After my dad’s attack, it made me completely aware of the situation we were in,” he said. “I have been threatened with death. My friend was beaten up severely. He was in debt.

“I couldn’t pay the supplier the full amount. That’s why I turned to my father for help.”