'Cripple' runs Marathon scam
Interesting bit of news...
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A MAN who claimed he was crippled spent 13 years taking disability hand-outs — before being caught when he was pictured running MARATHONS.
Lying Paul Appleby, 47, even completed the London Marathon.
He convinced Department of Work and Pensions staff he needed ROUND-THE-CLOCK care, a WHEELCHAIR, two WALKING STICKS and FRAME.
Jobless Appleby was given the highest rate of disability allowance for life in March 1994, a court heard.
But investigators were stunned when they found video footage of him taking part in road races.
They discovered brazen Appleby was so fit he had joined a local ATHLETICS CLUB in 2001 after his back condition improved — illegally trousering more than £22,300 in taxpayers’ cash over the next five years.
A source said: “It was extraordinary that he’d managed to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes for so long.
“He must be one of the most audacious benefit cheats around.
“To say you need help 24 hours a day because of your disability and then go and join an athletics club is daring in the extreme.
“He was literally running a huge risk of getting caught. And eventually, he did.”
Shameless Appleby, of Mansfield, Notts, faces a possible jail term after admitting defrauding the taxpayer at Nottingham Crown Court.
He will be sentenced next week and could face prison.
He ran hundreds of miles a year and took part in the 2005 London Marathon — coming home in a highly respectable time of just three hours and 37 minutes.
He also competed in dozens of other events for his local athletics club, Sutton Harriers, in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts. In last year’s Robin Hood Marathon around Nottingham he was the top-placed Harrier — coming 261st out of 1,118 finishers..
A fellow athlete added: “He made a pretty good name for himself as a solid, very consistent runner in the veteran categories. He was particularly good at half-marathons — and he still is.
He’s guaranteed to finish in the top third in most of the races he enters. No one had the slightest idea he was making out he was a cripple on the sly. He’s nothing like it — the bloke is as fit as a flea.”
Appleby was not available for comment last night. But the Government’s anti-fraud Minister James Plaskitt said the case was a tough message to Britain’s welfare cheats.
He added: “This is a stark warning to anyone committing benefit fraud — do it and you could face a criminal record.”
Lying Paul Appleby, 47, even completed the London Marathon.
He convinced Department of Work and Pensions staff he needed ROUND-THE-CLOCK care, a WHEELCHAIR, two WALKING STICKS and FRAME.
Jobless Appleby was given the highest rate of disability allowance for life in March 1994, a court heard.
But investigators were stunned when they found video footage of him taking part in road races.
They discovered brazen Appleby was so fit he had joined a local ATHLETICS CLUB in 2001 after his back condition improved — illegally trousering more than £22,300 in taxpayers’ cash over the next five years.
A source said: “It was extraordinary that he’d managed to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes for so long.
“He must be one of the most audacious benefit cheats around.
“To say you need help 24 hours a day because of your disability and then go and join an athletics club is daring in the extreme.
“He was literally running a huge risk of getting caught. And eventually, he did.”
Shameless Appleby, of Mansfield, Notts, faces a possible jail term after admitting defrauding the taxpayer at Nottingham Crown Court.
He will be sentenced next week and could face prison.
He ran hundreds of miles a year and took part in the 2005 London Marathon — coming home in a highly respectable time of just three hours and 37 minutes.
He also competed in dozens of other events for his local athletics club, Sutton Harriers, in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts. In last year’s Robin Hood Marathon around Nottingham he was the top-placed Harrier — coming 261st out of 1,118 finishers..
A fellow athlete added: “He made a pretty good name for himself as a solid, very consistent runner in the veteran categories. He was particularly good at half-marathons — and he still is.
He’s guaranteed to finish in the top third in most of the races he enters. No one had the slightest idea he was making out he was a cripple on the sly. He’s nothing like it — the bloke is as fit as a flea.”
Appleby was not available for comment last night. But the Government’s anti-fraud Minister James Plaskitt said the case was a tough message to Britain’s welfare cheats.
He added: “This is a stark warning to anyone committing benefit fraud — do it and you could face a criminal record.”
posted by pm19 at
4:05 pm
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