A benefits fraudster has been caught working at a holiday park after pocketing £26,000 in disability payments while claiming he was too unwell to even dress himself.
Graham Gannon, 63, said he was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis in order to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
But the Department for Work and Pensions acted after an anonymous tip-off suggested he was actually working at a holiday park in Norfolk as a maintenance worker.
Despite his claims, Gannon was carrying out physically demanding tasks on a daily basis, including painting, landscaping, litter picking, general repairs and even unblocking toilets. Some of the work involved climbing ladders.
He was later given a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, after admitting the offences at Great Yarmouth Magistrates’ Court, the Daily Mail reports.
The court heard he had wrongly claimed £26,324 in PIP payments over four years.
Prosecutor Wendy Davidson said Gannon began claiming benefits after reporting a loss of dexterity, but later returned to full-time work without informing the DWP.
She said he failed to declare his improved condition and instead continued to state he had limited use of his hands.
“He failed to disclose that he had returned to work full time,” she told the court. “He believed he could work and still claim and said he had a medical condition. He worked on a caravan site and would do heavy lifting on good days.”
Gannon, who was living on a boat in Lowestoft at the time of his interview under caution, admitted he had not told the authorities he had taken up manual work.
He pleaded guilty to three charges, including failing to report changes in his condition and circumstances, as well as making false declarations on PIP review forms in 2020 and 2022 while living in Beccles.
His defence lawyer Lisa Dade said he accepted responsibility and was genuinely remorseful, arguing the situation began from a misunderstanding rather than deliberate fraud.
She added that he had been of good character with no previous criminal record.
However, the bench chairman Geoffrey Dyett said the case involved a clear contradiction between his medical claims and his daily work.
“You have accumulated £26,324.65 in benefits you were not entitled to receive over several years,” he said.
Gannon was also ordered to pay a £154 victim surcharge and £85 in prosecution costs, and will face a loss of benefit penalty for at least 13 weeks.
