A Bangladeshi migrant benefits fraudster who has not worked for 30 years has escaped jail after agreeing to do community service, insisting it be only “light work”.

Abdul Jalil, 64, told authorities he only had £50 when he really had over £86,000 in the bank. Doctors found nothing wrong with his health other than a “tender” knee, Court News reports.

He does not speak English well, despite having lived in the UK since 1969, and the court could not find an interpreter for Tuesday’s planned trial because of the Islamic festival of Eid, delaying the case by a day and costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds.

Jalil has lived off the UK taxpayer since 1988 and was loaned £25,000 to buy his London council house in 2008.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were not notified about the extra cash, and he continued fraudulently claiming benefits in excess of £28,000 over an eight-year period.

The illiterate father-of-six then lied to the DWP about his assets as he filled out his benefits review form in 2012.

For the defence, Andrew Collings said Jalil “hasn’t worked himself for a number of years due to health difficulties” and that he only exceeded the amount of money he was supposed to have in an effort to purchase the house.

Mr Jalil told probation officers “he would do unpaid work as long as it’s light work.” He was ordered to do 120 hours.

Judge Sasha Wass QC allowed the fraudster to walk free with a suspended sentence, despite crime of this magnitude usually ending in a prison sentence.

She said: “This failure, extending over an eight-year period, resulted in overpayment of £28,771 of benefits to which you weren’t entitled.

“Benefits in this country are provided to those who need it and are paid out of the public purse.

“By failing to notify the authorities of your change in financial circumstances you abused that system over a long period, losing the public purse a great deal of money.”

However, she also claimed Mr Jalil was not “dishonest from the outset” and had wanted to plead guilty.

“The sentencing guidelines, which I must follow in this case, make it plain that this type of offending at this level will normally attract a prison sentence of between 36 weeks and 21 months,” she continued.