Holiday happy snaps catch woman fraudulently claiming disability pension

A $135k benefits cheat who claimed she was too disabled to walk more than a metre a minute was nailed by holiday snaps of her snorkeling. 

Linda Hoey, from the UK, fraudulently claimed over $109,000 in Disability Living Allowance and used her disability car to avoid paying $26,000 in road toll charges over a 14-year period. 

Hoey, 58, claimed that degenerative arthritis and back problems meant that she could only walk a metre a minute, and couldn't stretch her arms above her head. 

She was caught out when pictures from her holiday in the Maldives to celebrate her 20th wedding anniversary to husband Michael were passed to the Department for Work and Pensions.

A court heard how she was also pictured on her knees altering her daughter's wedding dress and bent over a pool table with a cue in her hand. 

Inquiries also revealed that she was a member of a gym, and had been attending regular swimming and badminton lessons. 

Prosecutor Anthony Cartin said: "She had been working full time from 1997 in a desk job doing the exact thing - sitting for a long time in the same position - she said she could not do without pain. 

"She has lied and exaggerated, cheating you, me and the public out of money from the public purse. 

"You have some health issues but you exaggerated the impact on your daily life because you know what you have to say to get disability living allowance." 

Hoey told the court: "I have not been dishonest. 

"My mobility has got worse. 

"I cannot walk without severe discomfort but perhaps I could have explained things a lot better on the forms I filled in." 

Stewart Halstead, Hoey's former boss at PartsWorld - which she left in 2014 - said he was unaware of her claimed health problems. 

He revealed that he had never seen her use her stick, and that she would regularly walk up and down stairs with trays of hot drinks. 

Words: Henry Clare