http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023059/Son-Humphrey-Lyttelton-guilty-benefit-fraud-failing-declare-large-inheritance.html
The son of broadcasting legend Humphrey Lyttelton has appeared in court charged with benefit fraud.
David Lyttelton, 53, failed to declare a large inheritance from the much-loved BBC personality known as `Humph', while claiming more than £4,000 in income support and council tax benefit.
Officials discovered that the broadcaster and jazz musician, who died in 2008, left nearly £1.2million in his will and that his estate was shared by his sons Anthony and David and daughters Georgina and Henrietta.
After an investigation David Lyttelton, from Elm, near Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, admitted receiving the inheritance in October 2009.
He said he had spent some of the money clearing debts but admitted that the windfall should have been declared.
Magistrates at King's Lynn heard he was overpaid more than £3,600 in income support by the Department for Work and Pensions between October 2009 and May 2010.
He also received £530 in council tax benefit illegally from Fenland district council between November 2009 and May 2010.
Lyttelton was convicted last month and sentenced to 80 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £200 in costs. He was also ordered to repay more than £4,100.
Kit Owen, Fenland council spokesman on benefit issues, said: `This case should serve as a clear warning to others. It underlines the need for anyone claiming benefits to declare any change in their circumstances immediately. Failure to do so is an offence.'
Humphrey Lyttelton, who was 86 when he died, presented BBC radio's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue for 36 years and was hailed by the corporation's director general Mark Thompson as `a unique, irreplaceable talent'.
A self-taught trumpet virtuoso, he made history in 1956 when his Bad Penny Blues was the first British jazz record to enter the top 20.
Lyttelton receives the BBC Jazz Awards Lifetime Achievment Award from Jools Holland with Charlie Watts
Lyttelton receives the BBC Jazz Awards Lifetime Achievment Award from Jools Holland and Charlie Watts
He was also a cartoonist for the Daily Mail, a journalist and even found time to indulge his passion for calligraphy and write books.
He used to end every edition of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue with surreal sign-off lines. He once said: `As the vanquished charwoman of time begins to Shake N' Vac the shagpile of eternity, I notice that we have just run out of time.'
Many believed the programme would not continue without Lyttelton, and regular panellists Barry Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden all ruled themselves out of hosting it after his death.
However in 2009 it was announced that Jack Dee was to become the new permanent host. He was chosen after he, Stephen Fry and Rob Brydon rotated presenting duties.
Some of the best-known rounds on the show include One Song To The Tune Of Another and the unfathomable cult game known as Mornington Crescent.