£60,000 benefit fraudster guilty

A 61-year-old man has been convicted of wrongfully claiming £60,000 in disability benefits. Leslie Webb claimed it took him 10 minutes to walk 50 yards but at the same time he carried coffins and drove a taxi for a living as well as playing bowls in his spare time.

Webb claimed bowls was 'therapeutic' - but a jury at Gloucester Crown Court found him guilty of six counts of benefit fraud. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Webb, of St Paul's Road, Gloucester, was found guilty of six counts of falsely claiming disability living allowance and incapacity benefit between 1996 and 2000.

Prosecuting, Rebecca Dennis said Webb worked at a funeral parlour until August 1996, by which time he had "started up his own little taxi business". She said: "That doesn't sit well with someone who said he wasn't able to sit for long periods of time or walk far."