Cotswold District Council has written off £7,747 of overpaid benefits after the man who claimed them disappeared.

The man, who refused to return his overpaid housing benefit, left the area before paying the full amount back to the council.

The overpaid benefits from the 1996 case were written off by Cotswold District Council in what Council Leader Lynden Stowe described as a “sad tale”.

From July 1996 to August 1999 the man failed to declare his wife’s earnings and was given more money than he was entitled to.

After collecting £11,685.74 of support he had no right to from the council he was prosecuted and received a reduction of his benefits which recovered £3,600 of the money he owed.

He later moved out of the area and the district council was unable to continue getting its money back as he no longer received benefits from them.

A final letter was sent to his last known address in November 2013 but the council got no answer and passed the case to its legal team.

After searching through the Department of Work and Pensions’ system and using credit searches it was decided that there was no other way to find him and, as the statute of limitations had expired, there was nothing else the council could do.

Cllr Susan Jepsen Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing said: “I just hope that we have learned some lessons and that we don’t let this sort of thing happen again.”

A spokesman for the council added that the district council has one of the highest rates of council tax collection in the country, standing at 99.1 per cent for 2013 - 2014.