A £5m lottery winner who continued to draw benefits, claiming he couldn’t afford to eat and feared eviction, has been jailed.

Edward Putman, 46, was handed a nine month sentence by Judge Andrew Bright QC at St Albans Crown Court today after admitting cheating the taxpayer out of almost £13,000 in housing benefit and income support.

The defendant, who hit the jackpot in September 2009 but asked for no publicity, was also convicted of rape in 1993.

Putman enjoyed a champagne lifestyle, buying himself a sports car and a £600,000 detached home in Kings Langley while continuing to claim benefits.

He even wrote to Department for Work and Pensions in 2010 pleading for benefits to be reinstated after they were stopped.

Suspicions were only aroused when the unemployed defendant attempted to buy his council flat in Hemel Hempstead from Dacorum Borough Council with £83,000 in cash.

Putman, of Station Road, Kings Langley, has already repaid the full amount