A SOLICITOR who defrauded the benefits system of almost £250,000 yesterday had his "manifestly excessive" jail term reduced at the Court of Appeal, in London.

John Aelred Tate, 54, of Mayberry Grove, Middlesbrough, was jailed for five years at Newcastle Crown Court in February last year after pleading guilty to obtaining money transfers by deception.

However, a dispute arose before trial between his lawyers and the Crown as to the amount of money he had received in the fraud. He was sentenced on the basis that it was £326,000.

But at the Appeal Court yesterday, Mr Justice Treacy, sitting with Lord Justice Rix and Judge James Paget, upheld submissions that the amount had been wrongly calculated. They said he should have been sentenced on the basis of having received about £240,000.

Reducing the former solicitor's sentence from five years to three, the judge agreed with arguments that not enough credit had been given to Tate for his guilty plea.

Mr Justice Treacy said Tate had been a qualified solicitor dealing with a great deal of legal aid work in the Middlesborough area, and his main body of work was to give clients advice on welfare benefits.

However, he forged the claimants' signatures and submitted a large number of fraudulent claims for benefit, the proceeds of which he pocketed.

Tate's lawyers argued the five-year jail term was "manifestly excessive" as the Crown Court judge had not used the correct method to calculate the total benefit Tate received from the fraud.

His lawyers also argued that Tate had not been given enough credit for his guilty plea.