A BUILDER spared jail for doing 'woefully inadequate work' and claiming to be on the Checkatrade website when he wasn't has been told he must pay a fine instead of carrying out community service, because he has a bad back.

Douglas Ward was ordered to do 200 hours of community service when he was spared prison in December last year.

Almost immediately after the 39-year-old went to his doctor to get sick notes showing he was unfit for work.

Now the probation service say the order won't be finished in the year allotted for unpaid work and asked a judge to replace it with another punishment.

After being told Ward, of Greenacres Mobile Park, Devizes Road, Semington, was a traveller so was not suitable for a curfew, a judge imposed a £250 fine.

Andrew Stone, prosecuting, said Ward was put on a seven-month jail term suspended for 18 months after admitting two offences under unfair trading laws.

He said Ward had provided medical certificates for 'back related problems' meaning he could not do the work, which could now not be completed in time.

Adam Norris, defending, said a curfew was 'impractical' but a financial penalty could be paid by borrowing from family.

Judge Peter Blair QC, sitting at Swindon Crown Court, removed the unpaid work and replaced it with a £250 fine.

He said: "I sentenced you to a suspended sentence when you were in front of me almost a year ago and ordered that you should do unpaid work, little knowing that within a very short period of time you were going to be suffering, at least it would seem to your GP, health problems that would prevent you doing your unpaid work.

"The unpaid work was a punishment for what you did to this family and a breach of trading law requirements. I am extremely disappointed that you have only done one hour of the induction.

"I am asked to revoke the unpaid work: with extreme reluctance I do so, but you will have to pay a fine in its place of £250."

He pointed out that the suspended sentence still hung over Ward until next summer and could be activated if he reoffended.