'Disabled' benefits cheat who spent his days playing golf is told to pay back £30k
A BENEFITS cheat who played golf tournaments while claiming he was too handicapped to walk has been ordered to pay back more than £30,000 or face a lengthy jail sentence.
Alan Bannister - who played off a handicap of seven - was convicted of benefits fraud after being caught on camera happily walking around a golf course during daily games.
Bannister, 56, was jailed for six months for fiddling more than £30,000 of disability benefits while winning tournaments.
Yesterday he was ordered to pay back the cash within six months - or face 15 months in prison.
His barrister David Leathley described Bannister as "a man of some means" and said he would be able to make payments of £500-a-month without losing his house.
I have to do something if I am not working - I can't sit in the house and melt away
Bannister said he experienced "severe discomfort" when walking.
A court heard Bannister had a taxpayer-funded mobility car by claiming he was in too much pain to walk when in fact he was the "club champion" at his local golf course and had won a number of tournaments.
He was filmed by the Department of Work and Pensions officials completing a 5,400-yard course in just four and a half hours.
They discovered he used his mobility car - intended for people "virtually unable to walk" - to drive to the golf club to play with associates who called themselves "Sunday Swingers" and "The Crazy Gang."
Bannister, who claimed he could barely walk 50 yards, was club champion in 2006 and also won competitions "almost on an annual basis."
He started claiming Disability Living Allowance in 2007 - saying he had an arthritic condition - and filled in forms saying he needed help raising his arms, putting on his shirt and shoes and carrying saucepans.
A special Proceeds of Crime hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard an anonymous caller told the DWP that Bannister was a keen golfer.
He was filmed in 2012 driving in his mobility car to St Andrews Major golf club near his home in Barry, South Wales, and completing the course in just four and a half hours.
In interview with Department of Work and Pensions officers, Bannister admitted knowing that he should tell them if there was any improvement in his arthritis.
He said: "I have to do something if I am not working - I can't sit in the house and melt away.
"I have got to get out there and get on with my life. I have to be up two or three hours before I can play golf.
"My illness if there all the time. I never ever thought I wasn't entitled."
A DWP officer told Bannister: "The fact you are getting on and fighting your illness is admirable but it doesn't mean the state has to pay for it."
Bannister denied committing fraud by false representation and dishonestly obtaining money transfers by deception but was found guilty by a jury after a four-day trial.