'Sick' builder caught on camera working » Bill Payments » 24dash.com

A 60-year-old builder was caught on camera doing block paving work and pushing wheelbarrows while claiming sickness benefits.

A court heard today how he had claimed around £8,000 in incapacity benefits between August 2003 and February 2006, although at times he would have been legally entitled to some of the money.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that Walter Porter effectively did building work when he felt "up to it" but did not tell the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and continued to claim weekly benefits of between £87 and £92.

Porter, of Glasgow Road, Jarrow, South Tyneside, was today ordered to do 150 hours community service after being told he had narrowly avoided a jail sentence.

The builder was caught on camera by DWP investigators and after initially denying he had been doing building work he admitted one offence of falsely claiming benefits after being shown the pictures.

When he appeared at Newcastle Crown Court for sentence, Porter was told he had been caught "fair and square" and could have been jailed.

Recorder Brian Forster told him: "You were entitled to receive incapacity benefit but the bottom line line is that you were caught fair and square working when you should not have been.

"This resulted in you obtaining, dishonestly, at least £8,000."

Recorder Forster told Porter he would normally impose a prison sentence for such an offence as courts had to "protect the state system of offering benefits to people that actually needed them" but that his case was different in that he had been legally entitled to claim benefit.

He added: "If you don't carry out the community punishment order you will come back before me and you will go to prison."

Tony Hawks, defending, told today's hearing: "Some times he felt well enough to work but thought it was too difficult to keep going to sign off benefit and then sign on again."

The court was told that the DWP would be taking steps to recover the money, either through deductions from his benefit or civil proceedings.

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