An arrest warrant has been issued for a Kilgetty man charged with benefit fraud who failed to appear for a court hearing this week.
Sixty-eight-year-old William Murray Gething-Lewis, of Broadmoor, charged with dishonestly failing to notify Pembrokeshire County Council and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), of a change of circumstances which would affect his entitlement to council tax benefit and pension credit, was due to appear at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday, but didn’t attend.
The defendant’s solicitor told the court that his client had been residing in Greece since 2013 and he had been instructed to ask for an adjournment of the case as he was in hospital at the moment.
The DWP had no objection to an adjournment, magistrates heard.
Mr. Gething-Lewis is alleged to owe somewhere in the region of £54,000, from between April 2008 and June 2013, prosecutor Ellie Morgan told the court.
The defendant had failed to notify the authority that he was in receipt of income from shares and that he owned property in Greece.
The court heard that Mr. Gething-Lewis was aware that these matters were due in court, with the court’s legal advisor explaining that he had been previously warned that non attendance would result in a warrant being issued.
Magistrates took the advice and stated that the defendant had been given plenty of warning of the hearing, before issuing a warrant for his arrest, without bail.