Benefits cheat golf ace jailed
A GOLFING ace who pocketed more than £36,000 in bogus disability benefits after falsely claiming he could not grip a toothbrush “let alone a five-iron” was yesterday jailed for seven months.
Leigh Neilly claimed that he was unable to walk more than 100 yards and could not even brush his teeth properly.
But investigators secretly filmed him smashing golf balls down the fairway and striding after them for nearly four miles at Silloth Golf Club in Cumbria.
Neilly, 41, of Silloth, was also filmed riding a bike one-handed.
Sentencing him to 30 weeks custody, Judge Barbara Forrester said: “This was a flagrant breach of the law.”
In March, a jury at Carlisle Crown Court had found him guilty of failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions of an improvement in his capabilities.
The father-of-two fraudulently claimed £36,825,23 he was not entitled to between April 2002 and July 2010.
This was a flagrant breach of the law
But the DWP has vowed to claw back every penny.