A millionaire businessman scrounged more than £32,000 in state benefits while living the high life, a court heard today.

Self-styled entrepreneur and inventor John Binns owned "vast swathes" of land, top-of-the-range vehicles, stables and horses while claiming Income Support, Pension Credit and Council Tax benefit.

One of his properties was called Two Hoots and his stables were named Llamedos, which reads sod em all' backwards, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Binns, 64, owned homes, land, stables and a hotel in Drighlington.

The director of five companies enjoyed foreign holidays, private health care and dining out, said prosecutor James Keeley.

He owned four horses, a £34,000 horse box, a Range Rover and a new Volvo, Mr Keeley told the court.

Binns, a member of Drighlington Parish Council, owned Two Hoots offices in Fieldhead Lane and the Adwalton Court Hotel in Hodgson Lane, Drighlington.

He pleaded guilty to nine charges relating to the benefit fraud on July 6 and sentence was adjourned for a pre-sentence report.

Mr Keeley said the seven-year fraud involved Binns fraudulently pocketing £32,375.98.

It lasted from July 30, 1999 until May 21 last year.

Mr Keeley said Mr Binns led an extravagant lifestyle with foreign holidays, private health care and good restaurants. During the fraud he adopted several guises including as property developer, publicity-seeking entrepreneur and landlord.

He enjoyed dining at the King's Cantonese Restaurant in Bradford where he had settled one bill for more than £400.

Mr Keeley said Binns's lifestyle was not commensurate with someone needing to rely on the safety net of state benefit.

He had numerous bank accounts and credit cards, telling one mortgage company his annual gross income was £100,000 and the credit card firm that the figure was £90,000.

"Literally hundreds of thousands of pounds were being received and going out of this defendant's bank accounts," Mr Keeley said.

In July 1999 Binns received a £315,000 compensation payout from the Highways Agency for compulsory purchase of land for the Drighlington bypass, of which £124,000 was placed into his personal bank account.

Over the years he had received increasing amounts of money in rental income and in one year the sum was £63,150.

Self-styled property developer Binns rapaciously tried to profit from land he owned or had an interest in. At one stage he had a £5.5 million land deal planned, the court heard and showed an interest in buying a £2.5 million house in York. He received an offer for £1.157 million for Greystones Farm in Gildersome.

He was listed as a director of five companies including East Pennine and Yorkshire Properties, DNA Security Cables Limited and Adwalton Court Hotel Limited.

Binns's barrister Simon Bickler conceded that he was in no way entitled to claim the benefits.

"One could create a picture that this was a multi-millionaire claiming benefit for no reason," Mr Bickler said.

He said this image was incorrect and that Binns was capable of exaggeration and that had now worked to his detriment.

The house in the Gambia was rented and he had owed money to the bank.

"He has effectively been a man of straw, albeit with assets that were potentially valuable," said Mr Bickler.

Pressure from creditors had meant that a house in Fieldhead Lane had been sold for less than its market value.

A dispute with Barclays Bank had "finished Mr Binns off financially" and unless and until he could sell his land he had no money at all.

Judge Stephen Ashurst told Binns he had been given an indication by a judge at an earlier hearing that he would not go to prison immediately.

He said although it was claimed that Binns was something of a Walter Mitty character these days, a harmless eccentric, "there has been good times as well as bad".

Binns was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment suspended for two years. A confiscation hearing has been listed at the court on October 5.

After the case James Plaskitt, anti-fraud minister at the Department of Work and Pensions, said: "This man thought his businesses and property were none of our business.

"But if, like him, you try to con us out of money we will find out about it and as Mr Binns has found, benefit theft really isn't worth it. He will have to pay back all the money and faces the possibility of having his property and assets confiscated."