Wolverhampton Sunday League top scorer avoids jail after £14,000 disability scam - with VIDEO
The final whistle has been blown on a footballing fraudster who netted more than £14,000 in disability benefits despite banging in goals on a Sunday morning.
Gary ‘Gaz’ Wilson was told he had avoided jail ‘by the narrowest of margins’ when he was hauled before Walsall Magistrates Court for sentencing.
He racked up the cash in Disability Living Allowance and Employment Support Allowance. But at the same time during November 2012 and May last year, the 30-year-old ‘prolific’ striker from Wolverhampton was turning out for Sunday league teams.
His ruse came to an end when the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) filmed him playing.
Father-of-four Wilson who once had a pro contract at Newcastle United, admitted two counts of benefit fraud as he failed to inform the DWP his condition had improved. His claims were not deemed false in the beginning and Walsall Magistrates Court heard he still suffered from back and hip problems.
Magistrates yesterday handed him an 18-week prison sentence suspended for two years. Chair of the bench said: “What makes it worse is that you chose to play football while claiming benefits.”
Wilson, of St. Chads Road in Bilston, was also ordered to pay £135 in prosecution costs and adhere to a three-month curfew between 8pm and 6am every day. A compensation order was not made because he has already started paying back the £14,568.63 handing over around £4,700 so far.
A spokesman for the probation service added: “He was asked by a friend to watch him play football and he got more involved.”
