Taxi-driving pall bearer was 'too ill' to work (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Taxi-driving pall bearer was 'too ill' to work

11:29am Tuesday 10th June 2008 in News By Submitted report

A FORMER county bowls club president who cheated the State out of £60,000 disability benefits while working as a pall bearer and a taxi driver escaped jail today.

Gloucester Crown Court sitting at Cirencester had heard how former BT engineer Leslie Webb, 61, had claimed for more than ten years that he was barely able to walk - yet he was regularly playing his beloved bowls as well as doing strenuous work.

He was able to carry coffins at funerals, drive long-distances and walk half a mile up and down a bowls green when he played three times a week.

To get incapacity and disability allowance benefits he claimed he had difficulty lifting and carrying. He said it took him 20 minutes just to walk fifty yards.

Webb, of St Paul's road, Gloucester, who took early retirement from his BT job on ill health grounds 20 years ago, was given an 18 months jail term suspended for 2 years.

He had been found guilty at an earlier trial of three charges of furnishing false information to the Department of Work and Pensions to claim disability living allowance and three charges of dishonestly making false representations to the Department to claim incapacity benefit.

The charges covered the period 1994 to 2000 but the prosecution said he had been receiving benefits from 1986 up until 2005 when he was arrested and charged.

The judge, Recorder Peter Henry, told him that the only reason he was suspending the jail sentence was because of Webb's very poor health and numerous illnesses.

"The prosecution have always accepted that you were very unwell but it is clear from the evidence that you grossly exggerated the difficulties you had with your movements and your abilities to function," said the Recorder.

"While claiming you could hardly walk you were able to hold down a job as a coffin bearer at a funeral parlour and you were an active and enthusiastic bowls player at county level.

"The jury heard evidence that you played frequently and had been actively involved.

"You said you couldn't sit for long periods and yet you were driving long distances in the course of providing a taxi service.

"These are self-assessment benefits and the Department of Work and Pensions relies on the honesty of the people that it calls customers.

"I have no doubt at all that the offences of which you have been convicted are so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified."

However, said the Recorder, he had taken into account the many goods things said about Webb by both prosecution and defence witnesses during his trial - people who had thought well of him but had now been let down by his offences.

The special reasons the court found for not jailing Webb immediately were his medical problems - Crohn's Disease, vascular necrosis of the right femur which had led to a hip replacement, poor blood circulation, cervical spondylitis, depression, hypertension and osteoporisis, said the Recorder.

"Those illnesses would have a substantial effect upon you were you to be sent immediately to prison," he said.

During Webb's trial the jury heard he had served twice as President of Gloucestershire Bowls Association during the time he was being paid benefits and he had no obvious physical problems playing matches up to three and a half hours long.

One witness against him was former world bowls champion Tony Allcock, MBE, now President of the English Bowling Association.

In a statement Mr Allcock said he never saw Webb have any difficulty playing bowls matches.

Webb did not use any walking aids on the bowls green and walked up and down the rinks at the same pace as other players, Mr Allcock stated.

"He did not need assistance to walk to the end of the rink, he showed no sign of breathlessness or distress. He would stand up throughout a match lasting two and a half hours."

Mr Allcock said he never saw Webb have difficulty getting out of a chair.

Webb had claimed in benefit applications to the Department of Work and Pensions that it took him 20 minutes to walk 50 yards.

He also claimed in his annual application form for benefits that he could not sit comfortably for more than 10 minutes without having to stand up.

Yet in the period 1994-6 he was working for funeral directors Ernest Cocks and Son of Gloucester, carrying coffins, taking the names of mourners and driving hearses and limousines.

He gave up the funeral work in 1996 but then ran a small taxi business, ferrying employees and customers of a local company to Heathrow and Birmingham airports.

The charges of which he was convicted stipulated that in claim forms to the DWP he had said it would take him 7-10 minutes to walk 50 yards, that he could not sit comfortably in a chair for 10 minutes without having to stand up, that he could not get up from a chair without holding on to something, and that he had difficulty lifting and carrying.

Some charges also stated that he claimed he could not walk 55 yards without feeling severe discomfort and having to stop. In another charge he allegedly stated it would take him 20 minutes to walk 50 yards.

In evidence Webb said the work he did was 'therapeutic' and he had declared it to the DWP.

He also claimed that he played bowls on the advice of his doctors who said it would be good for him - and that he had developed a special way of bowling so he did not have to bend his back or legs.

His barrister, James Tucker, told the court today that Webb was a man of 'positive good character' until his conviction and had paid tax and National Insurance throughout his working life before illness forced him to retire.

Webb did not now receive any benefits and far from living a lavish lifestyle he was 'in a great amount of debt,' Mr Tucker said.

Webb and his wife own only a small part of the equity of their home.

Over the last four years since the offences ceased his health had continued to deteriorate and he is now on morphine to control his pain, said Mr Tucker.

"His social life is now much more restricted, to put it mildly. He is no longer involved in bowls. He has been excluded from his social network and his support form the social club of which he was a member.

"That means he is restricted to time at home. That is a significant punishment."

Mr Tucker said if Webb went into prison 'he would simply be unable to cope' because of his illnesses.

"It would be a crushing blow for him to bear in the circumstances he is in."