A LANCASTER man captured on camera playing golf after pocketing £17,683 in disability benefits has been handed a 12 month community rehabilitation order.

Henry Calvert has also been fined £150 and has to pay back all the cash he claimed fraudulently.

Counter fraud investigation service officers began following Calvert, of Gressingham Drive, after an anonymous call to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) hotline.

The 58-year-old was claiming benefits on the basis that he could hardly walk and his condition was getting worse.

But video footage showed him playing golf at Lancaster Golf Club.

Calvert appeared before Lancaster Magistrates for sentencing after being charged with failing to notify the DWP that his medical condition had changed.

They had previously heard how the 58-year-old was claiming disability living and mobility allowance and had told the DWP that he was 'virtually unable to walk'.

The court was told how one golf competition he played in involved playing 36 holes in one day.

Mr Jon Batty, prosecuting, said: "It was understood that he played golf to such a standard that he had a single handicap. The secretary said only 10 percent of those who try golf achieve that standard.

"He claimed and received benefits to which he had no entitlement."

Mitigating, Michael Willey, said that Calvert had worked all his life, first in the engineering business and then in the pub trade, before being struck down with rheumatoid arthritis.

He was first hospitalised in Portsmouth in 1996 and was an in-patient for eight months.

And he added: "He is still ill and can only play golf with the use of pain killers. He has not gone through a magical transformation from being disabled to walking, it was a patchy improvement."

Chair of the bench Peter Crowther told Mr Calvert it was a 'serious offence'.

"Many people only relate benefit fraud to working while claiming benefit - but cases of failing to declare a change in circumstances and giving false declarations are taken just as seriously," says a spokesman for the DWP.

"Benefit fraud is costing taxpayers £82 million in the North West alone. This is not a victimless crime, benefits are there for people who are genuinely entitled to them."

o Members of the public can report suspected fraudsters free and in confidence on the National Benefit Fraud Hotline, The number to call is 0800-854440.