Porsche-driving benefits cheat claimed £23,000

Published Date: 20 October 2009
A PORSCHE-DRIVING South Yorkshire benefits cheat woke up behind bars this morning after being caught fraudulently claiming £23,000 from the tax payer.
Paul Russell, aged 38, claimed incapacity benefit for six years from 2001, claiming he could not work because of his bad back. He also drew council tax and housing benefits.Prosecutor Michael Rawlinson told Sheffield Crown Court that the first time inspectors visited Russell he insisted on being interviewed in bed, claiming he was in so much pain he could not get up.But Russell was actually running a building firm making between £44,000 and £59,000 a year.The court heard that he had savings of more than £3,000 when he started claiming in 2001, already making him ineligible for full incapacity benefit.By 2003 he had enough money to buy his council house in Lindsay Avenue, in Parson Cross, Sheffield, for £18,500, and in 2006 secured a mortgage to buy a second house in Hungerhill Road, Kimberworth, Rotherham for £135,000.He also managed to buy a £28,000 Porsche in 2005.In 2007 Russell remortgaged his Parson Cross house for £73,500, in order to pay off the mortgage on his Kimberworth property. Russell now rents out the Sheffield house for £380 a month.Andrew Smith, defending, said Russell had started off by making a genuine claim for incapacity, and had an operation for a prolapsed disc.Jailing Russell, who pleaded guilty to fraudulently claiming benefits, Judge Alan Goldsack QC said: "You decided to milk the system as well as earning relatively high sums of money. For many years you were blatantly dishonest with your fellow citizens' hard earned cash."Russell showed no reaction as Judge Goldsack sentenced him to 14 months in jail.The judge also set confiscation proceedings for January 2010.After the hearing Vernon Sanderson of the Department for Work and Pensions said: "When people commit benefit theft they don't get away with it. They face imprisonment, fines and other penalties."