By . Steve Nolan . PUBLISHED: . 14:54 EST, 18 April 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 02:14 EST, 19 April 2013 . Sentenced: Partially sighted Andrew Pishides claimed almost £176,000 in benefits while running three businesses . An escort agency boss claimed nearly £176,000 in benefits while running three businesses, a court has heard. Partially-sighted Andrew Pishides, 39, claimed £180 a day for almost four years from the Department for Work and Pensions for non-existent 100 mile taxi fares under a Government disability scheme. Pishides even supported the Access to Work scheme claims with forged receipts. The businessman, who ran Escort Emporium, Escort Solutions and a letting agency for parking spaces called Park Let, was sentenced to an eight month suspended prison sentence, placed on a 12 month supervision order and handed a curfew at Harrow Crown Court today. Sentencing Pishides, Judge Jeremy Donne QC told Pishides: 'You must have lived very well for those four years. 'These offences reflect a moderately sophisticated and extremely persistent fraud that garnered you just shy of one hundred and eighty thousand pounds. 'The benefits represented an income of over forty thousand a year and in addition you had legitimate sources of twenty thousand a year, which would have been equivalent to a six-figure salary before tax.' He added: 'Is it right that you should go to prison for four-and-a-half months? I confess I find this difficult. 'I have a clear public duty to deal with people who commit offences like these, but on balance I am persuaded a prison sentence can be suspended.' Pishides, from Neasden, north west London, pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining money transfers by deception, namely £106,000 in access to work payments; £37,328 in housing benefit; £28,637 in income support and evading a liability by deception, namely £3,874 in council tax. He was caught out when DWP investigators mounted a surveillance operation, which confirmed their suspicions that Pishides did not travel from his home to Wrotham in rural Kent three times a week to work as a software salesman. The scheme was set up to offer financial assistance with travel costs for those with disabilities to get to work. Hearing: Pishides was sentenced to an eight month suspended prison sentence, placed on a 12 month supervision order and handed a curfew at Harrow Crown Court, pictured . Pishides also failed to declare all of . his bank accounts, his business income and part-ownership of a . mortgage-free Lewisham flat when claiming benefits. Investigators discovered hundreds of pounds a week were being paid into Pishides' bank account from a large number of women who had signed-up to be his escorts. The DWP are pursuing compensation under the Proceeds of Crime Act and are currently deducting £100 per month from Pishides' disability living allowance payments. Defending Pishides, James Maloney told the court: 'The risk of re-conviction is low, the public is not at risk from the defendant. 'His disability would make imprisonment more stressful and difficult than able-bodied defendants and he would be vulnerable to those in the system with more know-how than him.' Pishides suffers from a genetic eye condition, which restricts his field of vision to only 10 per cent and he needs times four magnification in his right eye - his best - to see normally. 'He lost a lot of his life skills, his confidence, his self-esteem and did fall into some form of depression,' added Mr Maloney. 'He is genuinely remorseful about this.' Judge Donne said: 'He was pretty well off compared to a lot of people and it must have been apparent to him that what he was doing was quite egregious. 'What is the court to do with someone who commits offences on this scale for this period of time? 'However, it is a simple fact prison would be more difficult for someone with his difficulties and I have wrestled in my mind as to the correct sentence in this case.'
Partially sighted Andrew Pishides claimed £180-a-day for bogus taxis to work .
He claimed he was working as a software salesman in rural Kent .
But Pishides was running two escort agencies and a parking company .
By . Steve Nolan . PUBLISHED: . 14:54 EST, 18 April 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 02:14 EST, 19 April 2013 . Sentenced: Partially sighted Andrew Pishides claimed almost £176,000 in benefits while running three businesses . An escort agency boss claimed nearly £176,000 in benefits while running three businesses, a court has heard. Partially-sighted Andrew Pishides, 39, claimed £180 a day for almost four years from the Department for Work and Pensions for non-existent 100 mile taxi fares under a Government disability scheme. Pishides even supported the Access to Work scheme claims with forged receipts. The businessman, who ran Escort Emporium, Escort Solutions and a letting agency for parking spaces called Park Let, was sentenced to an eight month suspended prison sentence, placed on a 12 month supervision order and handed a curfew at Harrow Crown Court today. Sentencing Pishides, Judge Jeremy Donne QC told Pishides: 'You must have lived very well for those four years. 'These offences reflect a moderately sophisticated and extremely persistent fraud that garnered you just shy of one hundred and eighty thousand pounds. 'The benefits represented an income of over forty thousand a year and in addition you had legitimate sources of twenty thousand a year, which would have been equivalent to a six-figure salary before tax.' He added: 'Is it right that you should go to prison for four-and-a-half months? I confess I find this difficult. 'I have a clear public duty to deal with people who commit offences like these, but on balance I am persuaded a prison sentence can be suspended.' Pishides, from Neasden, north west London, pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining money transfers by deception, namely £106,000 in access to work payments; £37,328 in housing benefit; £28,637 in income support and evading a liability by deception, namely £3,874 in council tax. He was caught out when DWP investigators mounted a surveillance operation, which confirmed their suspicions that Pishides did not travel from his home to Wrotham in rural Kent three times a week to work as a software salesman. The scheme was set up to offer financial assistance with travel costs for those with disabilities to get to work. Hearing: Pishides was sentenced to an eight month suspended prison sentence, placed on a 12 month supervision order and handed a curfew at Harrow Crown Court, pictured . Pishides also failed to declare all of . his bank accounts, his business income and part-ownership of a . mortgage-free Lewisham flat when claiming benefits. Investigators discovered hundreds of pounds a week were being paid into Pishides' bank account from a large number of women who had signed-up to be his escorts. The DWP are pursuing compensation under the Proceeds of Crime Act and are currently deducting £100 per month from Pishides' disability living allowance payments. Defending Pishides, James Maloney told the court: 'The risk of re-conviction is low, the public is not at risk from the defendant. 'His disability would make imprisonment more stressful and difficult than able-bodied defendants and he would be vulnerable to those in the system with more know-how than him.' Pishides suffers from a genetic eye condition, which restricts his field of vision to only 10 per cent and he needs times four magnification in his right eye - his best - to see normally. 'He lost a lot of his life skills, his confidence, his self-esteem and did fall into some form of depression,' added Mr Maloney. 'He is genuinely remorseful about this.' Judge Donne said: 'He was pretty well off compared to a lot of people and it must have been apparent to him that what he was doing was quite egregious. 'What is the court to do with someone who commits offences on this scale for this period of time? 'However, it is a simple fact prison would be more difficult for someone with his difficulties and I have wrestled in my mind as to the correct sentence in this case.'
2013 . Sentenced: Partially sighted Andrew Partially-sighted Andrew Pishides, 39, claimed Solutions and a letting agency for parking spaces home to Wrotham in rural Kent three times a week to work as a software salesman. The scheme was