Skip hire worker in £12,000 benefits fiddle

While Stewart Bradley grafted away as a skip hire worker, he was illegally pocketing thousands of pounds in disability allowances by claiming he was too unwell to work.

He claimed that so serious were his afflictions he had been left unable to walk without the aid of two walking sticks and that he could barely venture more than five metres without pain.

But secret footage filmed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed that the 50-year-old from Bilston was telling a pack of lies and was delivering and collecting skips, Wolverhampton Magistrates Court heard yesterday.

Investigators watched as he clambered around on top of a skip before covering it with tarpaulin and driving off.

Bradley, of Wallace Road, Bradley, illegally swindled £12,631 in disability pay and incapacity benefit while working.

It was found that his claims spanned from March 2010 to last June, during which time he was working for Wednesbury-based Fill A Skip, a firm that is no longer in operation.

Fraud investigtors from the DWP were tipped off that Bradley was working while claiming and carried out a sting operation when he went to collect a skip at a business in Bott Lane, Lye, last March.

Mrs Catherine McTigue, prosecuting, said Bradley filled out an assessment form in January 2010 and claimed he could not walk more than five metres without feeling discomfort and needed two walking sticks. Bradley had earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to notify the authorities of a change in circumstances.

Mrs Bally Paul, defending, said her client was remorseful and had started to pay back what he illegally claimed. She added that Bradley was diagnosed with cancer in 2005 and that he had since suffered four heart attacks. He had been paid by bosses at Fill A Skip cash in hand and was therefore not contributing any national insurance or tax.

District Judge Graham Wilkinson imposed a two-month curfew meaning the defendant will have to remain indoors every night between 6pm and 6am.