A CONMAN who "hijacked" the identities of dead people he knew to help pocket himself £232,000 in various benefit scams has been jailed for three years.

One of Paul Burnett's fraudulent claims led one family to falsely believe their relative could still be alive.

The 45-year-old was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court yesterday for 20 charges of fraud and making dishonest representations - including to Bradford and Calderdale councils - to obtain benefits over a 17-year period between 1996 and August last year.

Among his claims were incapacity benefit, housing benefit, council tax benefit and Jobseekers' Allowance. He fraudulently opened bank accounts and also signed up to GP practices to keep up the pretence.

Judge Jonathan Rose described Burnett as "greedy" and said: "Your case has the deeply unpleasant and deeply hurtful aspects of you stealing the identities of men who had lost their lives years ago. Your offending has brought back raw and painful memories for their families."

Burnett used the identity of Michael Wells to buy a house on Dalcross Street, West Bowling, Bradford, and claim housing benefit and council tax benefit of £5,350. Burnett claimed Mr Wells was the landlord of the property and also forged a solicitors' letter as part of the scam.

However, Mr Wells had died in a drowning accident in Greece in 1996. Prosecutor Emma Downing said that when the Department of Work and Pensions told Mr Wells' family that claims had been made in his name, they "spent a small number of weeks believing that Mr Wells may have been still alive and that a mistake had been made in identifying his body abroad".

The court heard that because the pair were friends, Burnett knew father-of-two Mr Wells had died.

Miss Downing added that Mr Wells' sister had "a small flutter of hope" that her brother was still alive after being told claims had been made in his name. Miss Downing also said: "She was crushed and deeply upset when she discovered what had happened."

A statement from Mr Wells' father said that the scam had brought back all the pain and emotion of the death of his son.

Burnett, of Church Fenton, near Tadcaster, also claimed more than £10,000 in housing benefit and council tax benefits in the name of his uncle, Stephen Hackett, at two addresses in Bradford and Keighley after getting a copy of Mr Hackett's birth certificate from a library.

Miss Downing said Burnett "hijacked his uncle's identity in 1996" and that Mr Hackett had moved to France in 1991.

The court also heard that Burnett claimed housing benefit and council tax benefit in the name of his friend Michael Gilmartin, who had died in a motorbike accident in Leeds in 1988.

Burnett's deceit was unravelled when one of his unwitting victims, his friend Ian Wright, moved back to England from Australia in 2012 after emigrating in 1993. Burnett had used Mr Wright's identity - even pretending to be him on visits from Calderdale Council - to claim incapacity benefit and employment support allowance.

DWP investigators stepped in after Mr Wright started getting letters about benefits and he reported it to the police.

The court heard that Burnett had paid back £92,366 of the money. Judge Rose also ordered him to pay a £120 victim surcharge.