A benefits cheat who lied about being disabled was caught on camera going for 5k runs in her neighbourhood.
Annette Bond, 49, claimed she could hardly walk due to her multiple sclerosis and took almost £70,000 in benefits before fraud investigators set up secret surveillance in her area, which captured her ability to run 5km over mixed terrain more than once a week. Over the span of a decade, Bond had claimed “enhanced” benefit payments due to a series of conditions she claimed made it almost impossible for her to stand up, or even get out of bed, the Daily Record reports.
The jury at Perth Sheriff Court heard how she conned taxpayers out of £67,062.50 through false claims that her mobility was severely impaired by multiple sclerosis. The jury later found her guilty after being shown video footage of Bond leaving her home in high-visibility running gear, before running for almost 30 minutes around her neighbourhood.
Bond has now been ordered to pay back the £67,062.50 under the proceeds of crime legislation. Sheriff William Wood told her: “The rate of benefits awarded to you was dependent upon honest disclosure of your abilities.”
He continued: “On the basis of your application, you were awarded the highest rate of the care component and the higher rate of the mobility component of DLA. These are normally for those who… cannot or are virtually unable to walk unaided. Former work colleagues clearly indicated you did not require either the level of care or impaired mobility required for the benefits you claimed.”
“You rarely used a stick; you were able to get around the workplace unaided; you could negotiate stairs; and you were able to dance at a Christmas function. But by far the most graphic evidence in the trial that your condition had improved was the surveillance footage obtained by DWP investigators from 2017, recording your ability to run five kilometres over mixed terrain more than once a week.”
“I have noted you continue to maintain your innocence,” Sheriff Wood said. “You must have known you did not meet the criteria for the benefits of which you were in receipt. Your conduct can only be characterised as a prolonged and egregious course of dishonesty, for which there is no excuse.”
“You have obtained, through fraud, a significant sum of money to which you had no entitlement and you have deprived the taxpayer of funds that might have been usefully spent elsewhere. You have defrauded the state of a large sum of money over a protracted period. I am satisfied only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”
Fraud investigators disclosed that since they had accumulated so much damaging information against Bond, the crew had withdrawn from the surveillance mission early. In 2017, Scott Hodge, a 54-year-old fraud investigator for the Department of Work and Pensions, testified in court that the team parked at her residence and videotaped her running the same route three times in ten days.
When a few people are exposed for intentionally manipulating the system, many people may be deterred from engaging in similar behaviour. Therefore, anyone found doing so should have their rights to benefits revoked.
All fraud is wrong, but there are far more people dodging paying their proper taxation in this country and I don’t see HMRC going after them as eagerly. DWP seems to hire far more staff for fraud.
She was a good catch, but there are also genuinely sick and disabled people out there who end up getting tarred with the same brush.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 