Benefits cheat stole over £50k while working as tyre fitter

Full-time fitter claimed to be incapacitated and unable to work over seven-year period

Benefits cheat stole over £50k while working as tyre fitter
The fraudster was secretly filmed working, despite claiming he could not walk and required care. Image: Bigstock.

Michael Tindill, 43, was set to be sentenced on 17 November after being filmed carrying tyres, checking the underside of motors and holding down three separate jobs, reports the Mirror.

The benefits cheat is said to have swindled taxpayers out of £53,000 over a seven-year period after claiming it was impossible for him to hold down a job due to being virtually unable to walk.

Tindill, who also claimed he required care, started claiming disability living allowance in June 2008, despite already having been found guilty of benefit fraud in 2001.

HMRC raised suspicions with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) by providing documents which showed that he had been paying tax and national insurance at his job as a tyre fitter.

The Daily Mail reported that Tindill had been found to have worked at three separate garages, including a Kwik-Fit, between 2008 and 2012, but had never reported a change of circumstances to DWP.

Caught on the job

Unknowingly, Tindill had been filmed in the workshop, rolling and carrying heavy tyres as well as inspecting the underside of a car.

At one point, he was caught on camera carrying four tyres, with three on one arm.

A spokesperson from the Department for Work and Pensions Fraud and Error said: “He told us he was almost entirely unable to walk and needed constant care.

“In fact, he was pushing tyres around, bending down and completing other work, even becoming an assistant manager later on.

“I guess he would have been shocked when we found him and confronted him, he admitted it all.”

Sentencing

As well as amassing a whopping £53,000 in disability living allowance, Tindill also failed to declare the earnings from his job and was due to be sentenced at Stafford Crown Court on 17 November, for six counts of failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions of his change in circumstance.

The spokesperson continued: “This is a great example of a successful investigation, people will not get away with benefit fraud and we will bring them to justice.

“Benefits must go to people who need them, and in this case, Tindill has been taking money from the taxpayer.”

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