Disability benefits cheat secretly filmed completing 5k runs
Annette Bond has been ordered to pay back almost £70,000
- Published
A benefits cheat who was secretly filmed completing 5k runs after claiming she could barely walk has been jailed for two years.
Annette Bond has also been ordered to pay back almost £70,000 under proceeds of crime legislation.
Bond, 50, spent a decade claiming enhanced benefit payments due to a series of conditions which she claimed made it difficult for her to stand up or even get out of bed.
Bond, of Stanley, Perthshire, was found guilty of fraudulently obtaining £67,062 in benefits between 2009 and 2018.
Annette Bond was filmed by DWP investigators running up to four times a week
A jury found her guilty of failing to tell the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about a change in her condition which meant her support needs and physical ability had improved.
A fraud investigation team set up secret surveillance to capture Bond running around 5km (3.1mi) circuits from her home up to four times a week.
DWP fraud investigator Scott Hodge told the court: "I have gone ahead of the subject and then captured footage of her running along the road back into Stanley.
"It would have been hills, ascents and descents, at various different parts of the journey."
Mr Hodge told the court that Bond had completed the runs without any support from anyone else, had not been unsteady on her feet, and did not appear to be impaired.
He said Bond's confident running was at odds with the claims she had made about her conditions, including vertigo and dizzy spells.
On her claim form, she stated: "I prefer someone with me at all times when I am outdoors because I have poor balance. There is a risk of falling and dizzy spells."
In her own evidence, Bond admitted running around four times per week, but claimed the investigators happened to catch her out during a period when she was fitter.