The trial of a Kilgetty pensioner accused of benefits fraud has been postponed until later in the year after a judge accepted he was too ill to travel back from his new home in Greece.

Seventy-year-old William Gething-Lewis, who has a home in Broadmoor, has been facing prosecution for more than two years but has repeatedly failed to attend hearings at Swansea Crown Court.

On Friday (August 31), a judge accepted medical evidence that he was being treated for a liver complaint and would not be well enough to travel for at least two months.

A trial listed for next week has been put back until December 3.

Judge Geraint Walters refused to withdraw an arrest warrant issued after his previous non appearance.

Gething-Lewis is accused of failing to tell the Department for Work and Pensions and Pembrokeshire county council that he owned shares and was receiving an income from them.

Consequently, it is alleged, he received pension credits and council tax relief he should not have.