A WAR veteran who suffers from the debilitating effects of Gulf War Syndrome has had his incapacity benefit stopped and been told to go back to work.

Les McCourt, 41, of Felling, near Gateshead, says he began showing signs of Gulf War Syndrome only weeks after he returned from a five- month tour of Iraq, with the Royal Pioneer Corps, attached to the Army War Graves Service, 15 years ago.

Prior to the war, Mr McCourt had played rugby and been physically fit. But years after the first Gulf war, he developed mood swings, severe irritable bowel syndrome, night sweats and chronic fatigue. He also suffered from post traumatic stress disorder as a result of the horrors he witnessed, recovering hundreds of Iraqi bodies from the Basra Highway, north of Kuwait City.

He believes his symptoms are a result of walking through piles of depleted uranium shells; the number of vaccinations he received; anti-nerve tablets; and the pesticides sprayed to keep mosquitoes at bay.

Mr McCourt, 41, was discharged from the Army on medical grounds in August 1996 and has not worked since.

He had been receiving incapacity benefit, but recently he was told it was to be stopped and that he should go back to work.

"I was told it was because the regulations had changed," he said.

"I would love to work, but who would want to give me a job?

"Two or three weeks of the month I can be fine, but on the third or fourth week I feel like a zombie and my memory is terrible. I'm living on a military pension and a medical pension and I have a wife and son."

It is 15 years ago today that the Gulf War ended and the British Government still does not recognise Gulf War Syndrome.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said yesterday: "We do not recognise Gulf War Syndrome because of the overwhelming consensus from the scientific and medical community that there are too many different symptoms reported for this ill health to be characterised as a syndrome in medical terms."