Jobless gardener walks 160 miles to interview

IAN MacKINNON

A jobless gardener who walked 160 miles for an interview because his JobCentre would not pay the coach fare will have to wait a further two weeks to hear if his marathon trek has paid off.

Chris Owen, 26, yesterday emerged from his interview at a recruitment agency still bitter that he had been forced into the five-day march to try to land the six-month contract.

Government policy dictates that his JobCentre was unable to to pay the pounds 18.50 return fare under the Travel to Interview Scheme because the job working as a gardener abroad was for less than a year.

Mr Owen, concerned thatmedia attention would deter his potential employer, refused to disclose the name of the company that is recruiting gardeners to work in Italy, Greece, Corsica, Sardinia and Italy.

Last night he and his friend Richard Morgan, 31, who had accompanied him, were making their way back to Cwmbran, Gwent, courtesy of British Rail.

Eric Forth, the Employment minister, said: "If someone wants to dramatise his position by doing [that], that is entirely a matter for him." Labour's employment spokesman, Michael Meacher, said it was "absolutely absurd" that the JobCentre had refused to pay the fare.