£35k benef its cheats ‘unable to walk’ caught af ter shopping sprees
A FORMER bus driver is facing jail after he admitted claiming £22,000 worth of disability benefits to which he was not entitled.
Leslie Bush was followed into the dock by his wife, Norma, who admitted carrying out a similar con for £13,000.
The couple were caught exaggerating their medical difficulties by investigators who had been tipped off several times by members of the public. Leslie Bush claimed arthritis and other ailments meant he could walk no more than three metres (ten feet) at a time and was a full-time carer for his wife.
Perth Sheriff Court was told Bush claimed that he did not go out unaided more than once a week as he needed help walking, was unsteady on his feet, and became exhausted immediately.
However, a covert surveillance operation was set up and both he and his wife were filmed taking several shopping trips in less than a month. Investigators recorded nearly 40 minutes of footage of the Bushes walking hundreds of yards after getting out of their funded mobility vehicle.
They were seen going on trips to Tesco and appeared to be fit enough to carry shopping bags much further than they had declared on their benefits claim form.
Yesterday, both changed their pleas to guilty to claiming Disability Living Allow Perth ance from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to which they were not entitled.
Leslie Bush, 57, admitted conning the agency out of £22,000 by failing to declare an improvement in his ability to carry out tasks over a sixyear period.
He admitted committing the offence between August 2011 and May 2017 at his home in and a former address in Crieff.
Norma Bush, 56, admitted conning the agency out of £13,000 between 16 April 2014 and 16 May 2017.
The couple’s activities were first reported as suspicious in May 2013 and then again by another anonymous source in August 2014.
Sheriff Keith O’Mahoney deferred sentence on both for the preparation of social work reports and restriction of liberty order assessments.
In 2017, it was revealed that only three out of every 100 Scots accused of being benefits cheats ended up being prosecuted.
Of the tiny proportion who do go in the dock, fewer than 1 per cent were jailed.