Howzat? Cricketer who claimed £22,000 in disability benefits caught out by investigators

A cricketer who claimed disability benefit while opening the batting and wicketkeeping for his local team was caught out by fraud investigators.

Stewart Lorains claimed more than £22,000 in disability living allowance while he was turning out for Boosbeck in the Cleveland Cricket League.

The 53-year-old grandfather began claiming for diabetes, asthma and psoriatic arthropathy, an arthritic condition, in 2008 and needed help to perform everyday tasks, even struggling to get out of bed.

But when his condition improved in May 2009 and he was able to play cricket, he did not inform the authorities.

Investigators filmed Lorains keeping wicket for Boosbeck, smiling in his whites, bending over to pick a ball up and holding his gloved hands on his knees during a break in play.

Lorains, of St Cuthberts Walk, Liverton Mines, east Cleveland, pleaded guilty to failing to notify a change of circumstances at a previous hearing.

He was handed a four-month jail sentence, suspended for a year, at Teesside Crown Court.