Welfare cheat who could ‘ barely walk’ spent benefits on 19 holidays
A BENEFITS cheat who fiddled almost £70,000 by claiming he could barely walk was a keen cyclist who used the money to go on 19 foreign cruises with his wife, a court heard.
Kevin McEntee, 64, spent 12 years fraudulently filling out claims for Disability Living Allowance despite making out he was so ill he couldn’t write properly.
He said he needed a stick or walking frame to get around and could barely get out of bed or cut up his own food. But he swindled £48,000 for himself and a further £20,000 in relation to his line dancing wife Pauline, whom he claimed was also disabled and mainly housebound.
The money was spent on cruises, including trips around the Mediterranean, to Brazil and the Caribbean. The couple also visited their daughter twice in Australia.
And the court heard McEntee told his GP he was a member of a cycling club and cycled many miles each week without ill effects.
His scam was uncovered in 2013 when Department for Work and Pensions investigators filmed him and his wife preparing to board another flight to Australia at Manchester Airport. They were seen walking without difficulty dragging wheeled suitcases behind them.
Other images showed them on cruise ships and in locations such as Venice where there was no evi- dence of the walking aids McEntee claimed he needed.
McEntee was jailed for two years at Liverpool Crown Court by Judge Andrew Menary QC, who told him: ‘This fraud funded an obviously lavish lifestyle.
‘Despite being unemployed for some years you were able to afford to buy and service an expensive bike and you enjoyed many cruises and foreign holidays.
‘By claiming both of you, in different ways, were significantly disabled and in need of care you have grossly exaggerated the extent of your difficulties and did so for the simple and dishonest purpose of taking advantage of a benefit to which you knew full well neither you or your wife was entitled.’
The court heard how McEntee, of Birkenhead, Merseyside, began claiming disability benefits legitimately following an injury to his back at work in 1996, which led him to retire. He had a heart attack in 1999 and the jury was told to accept he has long-standing and genuine medical problems.
His wife, from whom he is now separated, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2008 which was treated with surgery and chemotherapy, the court heard.
However, beginning in April 2000 McEntee filled in several fraudulent claim forms for Disability Liv- ing Allowance in which he said he felt cut off from the world and tended not to go out. Detailing his need for the maximum level of benefit, he claimed he could not walk for more than 25 metres without severe discomfort.
Kevin Slack, prosecuting, said: ‘The defendant dishonestly exaggerated the extent of his disabilities. As if wrongly claiming on his own behalf was not enough, he filled out Disability Living Allowance claim forms in the name of his wife in 2010 and 2011, knowing full well the details he was putting on the form were untruthful.’
McEntee claimed she had chronic diarrhoea, was mainly housebound and being stuck in the same environment every day caused her constant misery. But witnesses told the jury they saw her line dancing on a Saturday night and having no difficulty carrying bags back from the shops. She escaped prosecution after her husband admitted filling in the forms on her behalf during a police interview.
McEntee, who denied five counts of benefit fraud, claimed a total of £68,924.45 over 12 years.
The judge told him: ‘You often cruised twice a year and sometimes three times a year.
‘Some of these trips were taken only weeks before or weeks after you completed a claim form in which you described yourself and your wife as virtually housebound.
‘Any member of the public who hears or reads about this case would be entitled to feel complete outrage.’
‘Cycled miles without ill effects’