A TROWBRIDGE benefit cheat who was told to seek treatment for his drink problem has been told he doesn't have to do the alcohol treatment programme because he now has a job.

Mark Salvesson was given the order when he was spared a jail term after he and his wife plundered tens of thousands from the state.

But just six weeks after it was imposed the probation service brought the case back before a judge on Monday, to ask for it to be removed.

Andrew Stone, for the probation service, said "Mr Salvesson's case is that when he is in work he does not drink, and he is now in work."

As a result of the three-month suspended sentence, imposed in September, he said the 51-year-old had to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

Last month he and his wife Nicola, 48, were given six months to hand back £41,408.63 of the £44,071.46 they took from the public purse, or face jail.

The couple, from Bradley Road, Trowbridge, claimed income support and housing benefit despite having savings of up to more than quarter of a million pounds.

Judge Tim Mousley QC, sitting at Swindon Crown Court, removed the alcohol treatment requirement from the order, calling it 'unworkable'