Stock car racer was claiming disability allowance

A father-of-three caught on camera speeding round a stock car race track while claiming disability living allowance has been ordered to pay £565.

Lichfield-based Peter Wilkes was filmed six times by a fraud investigator at the Trent Raceway, in Needwood, between August and October 2010 in a car displaying his name.

He was clearly seen getting in and out of the vehicle unaided, wielding a hammer and helping to push another car up a ramp on to a trailer.

Wilkes even had his own YouTube channel featuring extensive footage of himself at Trent Raceway.

The 45-year-old, of Turner Croft, Fradley, had legitimately started claiming the allowance for mobility problems since 2008 after hurting his back.

But he was accused of failing to notify the Department of Work and Pensions of an improvement in his capabilities after September 2009.

He denied the charge but was found guilty after a trial at Burton Magistrates' Court. He had claimed his partner would drive him to his GP or hospital appointments, helping him to shower or dress when the pain was at its worst. He also stated he could only walk 40 to 60 metres in a minute and that every step hurt.

Wilkes, who had injured some of his vertebrae in a football accident in 1991, claimed his illness left him unable to work.

He said he had bought the car for his son, to help get an apprenticeship as a mechanic, and found he could drive it with little pain. The court heard he had been overpaid by £4,439 in total. John Walsh, defending, said Wilkes' condition had got worse, not better, since 2008. He also claimed his client had been unaware that he needed to inform the DWP he was taking part in stock car racing.

Magistrates were told that Wilkes, who had never been in trouble before, had already repaid the money. He was fined £300 and ordered to pay £250 costs with a £15 surcharge.

Afterwards he said: "At the end of the day I'm not a bad person. All I did was ask for help when I was financially in a jam. Now I've been tarred with the same brush as people who make a career out of it."

DWP minister for welfare reform, Lord Freud, said: "It's cases like these that show us why welfare reform is needed.

We have a duty to the taxpayer and our customers to make sure that these vital benefits only go to those who need them. Benefit fraud takes money away from the most vulnerable."