A MATHS teacher who masterminded an £80,000 benefit fraud has not yet paid back a penny of the cash he swindled from the taxpayer more than a year ago.

Hatam Abbas, aged 41, who worked as a supply teacher at Prestwich Arts College until August 2007, was convicted of conspiracy to defraud and possession of criminal property in December 2008.

Judge Mark Gosnell, sitting at Bolton Crown Court in October last year, ordered him to pay back the £80,091.20 he had falsely claimed or serve an 18-month prison sentence.The court heard that Abbas, who founded an Arabic Saturday school in Bolton, planned to repay the cash by selling his house.

His case came back before Bolton Magistrates Court last week, however, as Abbas has not paid back a penny of the cash he owes in the last six months.

He was not required to attend the hearing.

Abbas, from Ladybridge, Bolton, has now been given extra time to pay back the money he owes.He had worked at the Prestwich school in Heys Road over a four-year period until his temporary contract ended in August 2007.

Bolton Council said Hatam Abbas’s solicitor had applied for extra time to pay because he still needed to sell his property to raise the money.

The council did not oppose the application.

Abbas owes the council a further £70,091.20 in compensation and £38,427 in legal costs.