A COUNCIL tax defaulter who borrowed more than £14,000 to buy a new car when he still owed money to Fenland District Council has been given a 43-day jail sentence. David Lamb – who was already subject to a 90-day suspended sentence when he bought a 2005 V

A COUNCIL tax defaulter who borrowed more than £14,000 to buy a new car when he still owed money to Fenland District Council has been given a 43-day jail sentence.

David Lamb - who was already subject to a 90-day suspended sentence when he bought a 2005 Vauxhall Vectra - was jailed by Fenland magistrates sitting at Wisbech.

While in the court building, unemployed Lamb managed to get a new job as a pizza delivery driver, but magistrates turned down his offer of payments, and jailed him immediately.

Last July, Lamb was ordered to pay a £3,104 council tax debt at £50 a week or go to jail for 90 days.

He paid regularly for almost a year - but in June stopped paying, and still owed Fenland District Council £1,496 when he borrowed the money for a car.

A credit search by the council showed that Lamb borrowed £14,168 on September 30, with repayments of £289 a month.

At the court hearing, Lamb was represented by Ian Graham, who confirmed that Lamb's car purchase was "unrealistic."

He said Lamb's priorities had been wrong, and he should have paid the council first. He made the first payment on the car, but had to borrow the second payment from his mother-in-law, because he lost his job.

Lamb accepted that the onus was on him to check how much he owed the council.

*A council spokesman has confirmed that Lamb would be released from jail on payment of the debt.