Man jailed for claiming 90,000 of disability benefits...despite playing football every weekend

Sprinting down the pitch and tackling opposition players in a football match, it would be hard to believe Robert Murt was crippled by agonising back pain.

But that is just what he asked benefits bosses to believe when he claimed almost £90,000 in disability benefits over 11 years.

He told them he had trouble standing, walking, mounting the stairs and ended up in excruciating pain if he had to stand for more than ten minutes.

But at the same time as claiming disability benefits, Murt, 50 was working as a delivery driver and was described by his boss as 'one of the fittest people in the workplace.'

And every weekend he take part in a 90-minute football match for an amateur side, tackling and running the length of the pitch.

Yesterday the web of lies caught up with Murt of Warbreck, Liverpool when he was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to false accounting and failing to notify a change in circumstances.

More than 500 similar offences involving obtaining by deception taken into consideration.

Liverpool Crown Court heard his claim began legitimately after he had to give up his job as a driving instructor following a football injury.

But his condition improved and in August 1996 he began working as a casual driver earning £260 a week and from March 1998 joined a print firm as a delivery van driver and stockman earing £214 a week.

Nicola Daley, prosecuting, said: 'His duties involved driving, loading and unloading various sized parcels, a role described as very physically demanding.'

Caught on camera: Murt (second from left) was jailed for 18 months

But for 11 years Murt claimed incapacity benefit and disability living allowances claiming he had sciatica and by the time he was caught he had dishonestly obtained £86,683.

After a tip-off a team of investigators launched an inquiry and secretly filmed Murt playing regular games of football.

Miss Daley said: 'He was described as being physically competitive and perfectly able to do that for the whole 90 minutes.'

Jailing him for 18 months Judge Mark Brown told Murt he had blatantly lied to continue claiming the benefits.

'Your boss has described you as one of his most fit workmen. You told blatant and calculated lies to obtain public monies.

'In 2006 you were suggesting to the DWP that you could not stand for more than a few minutes and were suffering from a great deal of pain yet at the same time you were observed around the streets and enthusiastically participating in sport.

'Blatant fraudsters such as you are devoid of any conscience of the effect that you are not only helping yourself to honest taxpayers' money are also taking the bread out of the mouths of those who are genuinely in need.'

Teresa Loftus, defending, said that Murt had no previous convictions and had begun the claim legitimately after losing his job because of a football injury.

She said Murt and his wife did not live in a luxurious lifestyle and they were likely to lose their home to pay the money back.

After the hearing a spokesman for the DWP said that Murt will face a confiscation hearing in October.

He said: 'The public rightly get angry about such antisocial behaviour and, as in this case, with their support our skilled investigators will track down fraudsters.'