Gambling addict faked paralysis in £250,000 benefit con
A BENEFIT fraudster was jailed yesterday after claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds by pretending to be confined to a wheelchair for 15 years.
Brian Matthews, 52, told he officials he was unable to use his arms and legs – but he was seen pushing his wife around in her wheelchair.
Matthews even fooled experts with his fake symptoms and convinced doctors to give him medical documents without examining him.
He also stole the identity of a dead man and claimed benefits in his name too as he fed a gambling habit which left him with debts of £350,000.
Matthews admitted eight charges, with Jo Martin, for the prosecution, telling Truro Crown Court, in Cornwall, that he had fraudulently claimed almost £250,000.
With further charges left on the file, Matthews is believed to have claimed as much as £500,000, with an income of up to £4,200 a month from state handouts.
He falsely claimed incapacity benefit, industrial injuries benefit, disability living allowance and housing benefit. The prosecution said: ‘He found the weak points in the system.
‘There are four ways Mr Matthews defrauded the benefits system. He claimed benefits in his own name and, from 2001, claimed he was paraplegic or quadriplegic and confined to a wheelchair following an accident at work in 1997, which he said crushed his spine.
‘He claimed benefits in the name of his second wife. He stole the identity of a man called David Blewett, a man who died in tragic circumstances, to claim his benefits between 2011 and 2016. He claimed benefits for his children, even though his children had been fostered largely from the time of birth.’
Matthews filled in forms claiming to be ‘totally disabled’ and ‘entirely wheelchair bound’ and ‘required 24-hour supervision’.
He also applied for compensation after claiming he was attacked by a gang of youths, saying he had lost his testicles.
Doctors who assessed Matdead,
‘He found the weak points’
thews agreed he was quadriplegic after accepting his presentation in a wheelchair and despite not physically examining him.
He forged letters and reports to support his claims and said he could only sign his name by holding a pen in his mouth. Miss Martin said: ‘The applications were over-inflated with total lies.’
She told the court Matthews worked until at least 2005 and fooled the authorities by using different addresses in Chingford and Southend, in Essex, and Penzance, in Cornwall. When officials learnt Mr Blewett was one went to his former home where he met Matthews, who had moved in. He was wearing dark glasses, carrying a stick and claiming to be blind, saying he was Mr Blewett.
Matthews had also been treated in hospital for a broken wrist which he said had happened while lifting 50kg weights.
The court heard his wife suffered a stroke which enabled him to claim that Mr Blewett, who was really dead, was her full-time carer. Police and the Department for Work and Pensions began a complex investigation into Matthews in 2013.
He was arrested three years later. At his two homes in Essex, police found no evidence of any disability or any wheelchairs. Miss Martin said: ‘There was found an undated photograph of Mr Matthews posing for a modelling agency called New Faces.
‘Mr Matthews was present at the Chingford address and his car, which had no adaptions and had been provided for him by the mobility car scheme, was parked two streets away.
‘Mr Matthews was videoed walking with a walking stick.’
In Penzance police found a wheelchair at the back of a cupboard, golf clubs and an undated photograph of him playing golf.
He was jailed for three and a half years.