Facing prison, the ‘disabled’ benefits cheat ... who ran 5k 4 times a week!
She swindled £70,000 over 10 years
A BENEFITS cheat is facing jail after being covertly filmed doing 5k training runs despite claiming she could barely walk.
A jury took just half an hour to find Annette Bond guilty of conning taxpayers out of nearly £70,000 at the end of a week-long trial at Perth Sheriff Court.
The 49-year-old spent almost a decade claiming ‘enhanced’ benefit payments due to a series of conditions she claimed made it difficult for her to stand up or even get out of bed.
But a fraud investigation team set up secret surveillance which filmed Bond running 5,000m circuits from her home in Stanley, Perthshire, up to four times a week.
Sheriff William Wood deferred sentence for reports and granted bail.
He said: ‘Given the duration of the deception by omission and the amounts involved, I need to consider whether a custodial sentence might be appropriate.’
The jury heard the jeweller cheated taxpayers out of £67,062.50 by claiming her mobility was severely impaired by multiple sclerosis.
They found her guilty after being shown footage of Bond leaving her home in highvisibility running gear to do sub-30 minute 5k runs.
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) fraud investigator Scott Hodge, 54, said the surveillance team finished their operation early because they had gathered so much damning evidence.
Mr Hodge told the court that investigators parked in view of Bond’s home and filmed her running the same route three times in a tenday period in 2017.
He said: ‘She is walking briskly and then she turns at the junction and begins to run. I have gone ahead of the subject and then captured footage of her running along the road. It would have been hills, ascents and descents, at various different parts of the journey. The estimated distance run was 4,800 metres – just short of three miles.’
He said Bond completed the run in 27 minutes.
Mr Hodge told the court that Bond finished the runs without support from anyone else, had not been unsteady on her feet, and did not appear to be impaired.
He said the team had been granted a warrant to conduct a surveillance operation between May 30 and August 29, 2017, but ended it after less than two weeks.
He said Bond’s confident running was at odds with the claims 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.’
Her mother, Elizabeth Bond, 68, told the jury her daughter was diagnosed with MS in 2004, but exercised regularly to fight the condition.
Mrs Bond said: ‘I occasionally saw her when I was on the way to work. She was out running. I was very pleased to see she was fit enough to run.’
In her own evidence, Bond admitted running around four times per week, but said investigators saw her during a period when she was fitter. She was found guilty of fraudulently obtaining £67,062.50 in benefits from 2009 until 2018.
Bond will be sentenced next month.
‘I have poor balance’