Benefits Cheat: Father Claiming He Is Too Disabled To Work Seen Lifting Scooter Up The Stairs

A father of two on benefits who claims he is too disabled to work has been seen by neighbours lifting his scooter up the stairs to his apartment.

Gwynfor Jones, 50, pockets around £1,340 a month in benefits and says he can’t climb three steps or walk 100ft without a stick.

But he appears quite capable of picking up his £4,295 Shoprider Cadiz scooter by the axle and hauling it up the five steps to his one-bedroom council flat in Bournemouth.

Mr Jones, known as ‘Daz’, quit working as a trucker in 2009 after injuring his knee. Since then, he claims to have suffered a series of health problems which have stopped him working  including six heart attacks, a minor stroke and a kidney blockage.

His state handouts include £217 a month in personal independence payments, £324 a fortnight employment support allowance because he is registered as disabled and housing benefit of £98 a week.

But Mr Jones has stunned neighbours with the brazen lifting routine for two years and admits he fears that government officials will catch him dragging the scooter, which is almost as heavy as a piano. When confronted, the twice-divorced former trucker said: ‘The authorities would have my guts for garters if they saw this. They’d say I don’t need benefits.’

Mr Jones said he feared he would lose everything if officials caught him lugging the heavy machine to his front door, but insisted he could manage only three steps before collapsing. He told The Sun: ‘I’m not physically capable of working and haven’t been for years. I need the scooter. I can walk up three steps before I’m buggered.

‘When I’m pulling this thing up, my legs go every single time. I have to sit and wait half an hour-plus with it resting on my legs. If the DSS (Department of Social Security) saw me pulling this up the stairs, they would say, “You’re not disabled. I would lose everything. I get anxious about it. But if I get too anxious and depressed it could bring on an angina attack.’

The Government says £1.2billion is lost every year to benefit fraudsters, despite repeated pledges from David Cameron for a crackdown.

The Department for Work and Pensions has insisted it is ‘fixing the welfare system’. Last year, the department announced that benefits cheats would have their assets seized by bailiffs. 

Source: The Daily Mail