AN optician who cheated the NHS by submitting false claims has been ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £153,000.

John Walsby-Tickle, who had an outlet in Warrington, admitted six specimen offences of obtaining property by deception, involving a total of £600 cash from the Liverpool Health Authority in 1996 and 1997.

Liverpool Crown Court heard on Monday that Walsby-Tickle has assets of £2 million and still faces civil proceedings, as the Central Liverpool Primary Care Trust is pursuing him for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Walsby-Tickle, aged 51, was co-director of A E Walsby, which had several outlets in the north west.

His barrister, Stuart Denney, said: "It was a very great strain to try to survive and offer a good service and he accepts he crossed the line and what he was doing was essentially recouping relatively small amounts from the NHS he should not have claimed.

"There must have been 15 to 20 occasions when he did such a thing."