A man who said he could only walk with a stick falsely claimed benefits while holding down several jobs – including working as a security guard at a court.
John Heaton, 44, pocketed more than £19,000 in Disability Living Allowance over more than eight years.
He worked physical jobs including head doorman at a holiday park and as a security guard at Bodmin Magistrates' Court.
But Plymouth magistrates heard he claimed he had no strength in an injured leg, no balance and needed a stick to help him walk.
Heaton, of Porth Bean Road, Newquay, admitted failing to notify a change of circumstances which would affect his benefit claim between October 2002 and March 2011.
Magistrates gave him an eight-week prison sentence, suspended for two years.
He was ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work and pay £50 towards prosecution costs.
The court heard he was paying back the £19,431 he was overpaid, at the rate of £60 a month.
John Major, prosecuting for the Department for Work and Pensions, said Heaton began claiming DLA in 1993 because he had fractured his right femur or thigh-bone in a road accident.
Mr Major said he claimed in 1994 that he could not walk without sticks and needed help with shopping and to get into the bath.
He added that in 2004 he was still saying he had no balance and needed a stick to walk.
But Mr Major said investigators found he had done a range of physical jobs since 2002, including pressure washing industrial plant, factory work at a creamery and as a security guard at Bodmin Magistrates' Court.
Ken Papenfus, for Heaton, said in the years after the accident he had been genuinely unable to work. He added that the money involved was substantial but did not represent a "significant income" over nearly nine years.
Mr Papenfus made the unusual step of giving his client a brief character reference, having met him in his capacity of a security guard at the Bodmin court.
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