A MAN has been jailed for nine months after attempting to defraud a supermarket by staging a fall in their store and claiming compensation for £11,000.

Louis Dempsey, 35, unemployed, of Mount Pleasant, Brighton, was convicted and jailed at Lewes Crown Court on October 9 after a trial on a charge of fraud by making a false representation.

In November 2012 he claimed the compensation from Asda, for what he claimed were back and neck pain, headaches and emotional suffering, following a fall on a wet surface, caused by what he said was their negligence, in a shopping aisle at their Marina store in Brighton in June that year.

However when the store sent the CCTV footage to his solicitor, nothing was heard from him for more than a year, but his claim remained in place.

Asda then informed Sussex Police and in a police interview Dempsey denied any wrong doing before a report was sent to the CPS who authorised his prosecution.

PC Lee Johnson said: "Dempsey claimed that he sustained the injuries when he slipped on a puddle of water which had been dripping from the store ceiling.

"But the whole CCTV episode shows him previously walking across that area and looking around, and others walking past with no problem at all."