A FORMER mayor allowed a jobless councillor friend to help with his aerial rigging business because he feared the man was on the verge of suicide, a court heard.

"He was really down in the dumps and I thought he was going to do himself in," said Paul Browne, 55, who has served as a councillor for 25 years and is the leader of the Liberal Democrats on Blackburn with Darwen Council.

Browne denied furnishing the DSS with false information but was found guilty by Blackburn magistrates and given a 12-month conditional discharge. He must also pay £500 costs.

DSS prosecutor Charlotte Kenny said was visited by two officers from the Benefit Agency in relation to Paul Edmondson, also a Liberal Democrat councillor, who lived at Ermine Close, Blackburn.

Both men, who have been friends for 33 years, had been under surveillance since early February.

During the short interview, on the doorstep of Browne's house in Greenway Street, Darwen, he claimed nobody worked for him in any capacity.

Later, at a formal interview, he admitted that Edmondson had been helping him out him for 18 months.

John Dewhurst, defending, said his client had not been asked in the initial interview if he had anybody working for him, but rather whether he employed anybody. Browne told the magistrates: "Paul Edmondson was going through a bad patch living on Roman Road estate.

"He was really down in the dumps and I thought he was going to do himself in.

"I decided to ask him to come out with me in my van to get him off the estate about 18 months ago.

"There was no formal arrangement and I never paid him.

"He borrowed my van at weekends to pick up his lad in Preston. It was just to get him going again and it seemed to do him a power of good."

He added: "I have never claimed a penny in my life and don't understand the benefit system."

Miss Kenny said: "You have been a councillor for 25 years yet you don't know how the benefit system works and that if somebody works, paid or unpaid, the DSS has to be notified?

"Was it not instead that you turned a blind eye to it?"

Mr Dewhurst described the charge as a "nightmare situation" for his client.

"It wasn't a cloak and dagger affair. If he had been asked about Mr Edmondson at the first interview he would not be appearing today. It could all have been cleared up quickly."

Paul Edmondson, 49, of Hollin Street, Blackburn, also appeared before Blackburn magistrates on four charges of making a false statement to the DSS to obtain benefits or payment and faces a further 53 allegations under section 51 of the Theft Act.

He was bailed unconditionally until July 13 for a pre-trial review.

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