A Bristol city councillor has been convicted of falsely claiming more than £3,500 in benefits.

Simon Crew, who represents Brislington East, was paid a carer's allowance for looking after his sick mother, a court heard.

But after he was elected as a Labour councillor in May 2007 he failed to tell the Department of Work and Pensions about his new role, allowances for which pushed his earnings beyond the threshold that entitled him to claim a carer's allowance.

The amount wrongly claimed totalled more than £3,550 between May 28, 2007, and October 12, 2008, North Somerset Magistrates Court heard yesterday.

Crew, of Eastwood Road, St Anne's, was convicted of failing to notify a change of circumstances affecting his entitlement to benefit and ordered to pay £1,400 in fines and costs. He has already paid back the money wrongly claimed.

The 34-year-old, who has been suspended by his party since the start of the case, had pleaded not guilty to the charge at an earlier hearing.

The court heard in November 2006 Crew applied for the benefit as he had given up his job as a welder to care for his mother, Caroline, who was suffering from emphysema and osteoporosis, for more than 35 hours a week.

But in May 2007 Crew was elected as Labour councillor for Brislington East, a role which gave him an allowance of about £750 a month. He also took up a position of council committee member for Avon Fire and Rescue, earning him another £269 gross a month.

The payments pushed Crew over the income level he was allowed to receive and to still get benefits.

But he failed to tell the DWP of his change of circumstances, and over an 18-month period was overpaid £3,554.10. The court heard receiving the extra benefits was an oversight on Crew's part, and that as soon as he was told about his mistake he apologised and paid all the money back.

Magistrates were told that Crew was sent a number of letters from the DWP reminding him of the need to notify of any change of circumstances and telling him that the income threshold had gone up.

The court heard Crew told a DWP benefit fraud investigator: "I obviously didn't pay much attention to the forms, and being busy with my mum and getting elected it was a complete oversight on my part, which I should have taken complete responsibility for and should have told you about."

Michael Bond, chairman of the Brislington East Labour branch, told the court that Crew "is a very unselfish man and is totally honest".

Mark O'Donnell, prosecuting, said Crew had failed to disclose his income deliberately. He said: "The reason you didn't is that you knew it would affect your entitlement to the money."

Defending, Martin Winter said: "Mr Crew, a man of high personal qualities, has made a mistake."

Convicting Crew, presiding magistrate Marilyn Darg said she was satisfied that he had failed to notify the DWP of his change of circumstances and that he acted out of character. Crew was ordered to pay a fine of £400 and court costs of £1,000 within 28 days.

Speaking after the case, he said he would consider appealing.

He said: "I think they recognise that there was no fraud involved and that there was no dishonesty. I just want to get back to representing the people of Brislington East."

A spokesman for Bristol City Council said: "We will study the findings once we have all the details and will review the situation."

A spokesman for the Bristol Labour group said: "We will talk about this at a senior level in the Labour group. From his moment of arrest he was suspended from the Labour party nationally and in that time has not attended any Labour group meetings."