A CIVIL servant who cheated the state out of more than £100,000 has been jailed for eight months.

Ian Nenna, who was a clerical officer, assessed maintenance claims for the Child Support Agency, but at the same he was swindling thousands of pounds in benefits.

43-year-old Nenna, who was morbidly obese, told the authorities he was incapable of working, but actually he was doing over-time and getting promoted.

Jailing him, Judge Mark Brown said, “There can be absolutely no excuse for that kind of conduct, particularly for an individual such as you who was working for the child support agency, a civil servant who was fiddling the system on the side.

“Public money is involved and your action represents a serious breach of trust in relation to public money that could be otherwise spent on better things such as the health and educational services in this country.”

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Nenna, of Seabank Road, Wallasey, began to claim invalidity benefit in 1991 insisting he was unfit to work.

But in November 1993 he got a job with the CSA, which at the time was part of the Department for Social Security which had responsibility for handing out benefits.

The system changed In 1995 but Nenna continued his fraud by re-applying for incapacity benefit, which he received for the next nine years.

Five years later he also began to claim housing and council tax benefits.

Frances Hertzog, prosecuting, said Nenna’s crimes eventually came to light in 2007 after his wife submitted an application.

Judge Brown said he accepted that if Nenna had been honest with the authorities he could have been entitled to a string of tax credits, totalling up to £58,000.

But he added: “The overall loss to the public remains significant.”

Nenna pleaded guilty theft and fraudulent accounting which totalled £106,655.

Adrian Evans, defending, told the court father-of-four Nenna had not spent the money frivolously, but had simply wanted to provide for his family.

He told the court depressed Nenna, who suffers from an eating disorder, had continued to claim benefits to supplement his £140-a-week wage.

Mr Evans said, “He decided for a short period for his benefits to continue to be received for his family, but things have gone awry because he continued to claim benefits fraudulently.

He added that Nenna had stopped his scam in 2004 after his wife found work.