www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_head...89520-name_page.html
'STRONGMAN' CLAIMS £43K BENEFITS
'Cornwall's Strongest Man' claims £43,000 DISABILITY benefit
By Richard Smith 19/05/2007
A BODYBUILDER won the Cornwall's Strongest Man title -while falsely claiming £43,000 disability benefit.
Jon Stentiford, 35, pocketed taxpayers' cash while training for the contest in 2003, in which he lifted a Mini Metro car off the ground for more than a minute, dragged a lorry, held a 50lb weight at arm's length and ran around carrying heavy gas bottles over his head.
The 6ft 4in muscleman, who competed under the name John Nicholls, also allegedly worked as a labourer and nightclub bouncer, a court heard yesterday.
He admitted falsely claiming disability living allowance, income support and council tax benefit.
Andrew Oldland, prosecuting, told Truro crown court:
\"He has several convictions for dishonesty from at least 10 years ago.\"
Stentiford, of St Neot, Cornwall, was bailed to be sentenced later.
Judge Graham Cottle warned he faced a jail term.
Anti-fraud minister James Plaskitt said later: \"He was falsely claiming, not realising our heavyweight investigators would pick him up.\"
SUPERFIT martial arts instructor Paul Gargett claimed more than £7,500 disability benefit while teaching kickboxing three days a week.
Gargett, 55, of Fareham, Hants, had a back condition in 1992 which left him barely able to move.
But it rapidly improved in 2004 after he joined a gym, Portsmouth crown court heard.
He even won a veterans' pressups competition and was training for a weightlifting contest.
Someone tipped off the Department for Work and Pensions and investigators caught him instructing kickboxing to a \"strenuous\" level. He was given a 26-week suspended jail sentence.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_head...89520-name_page.html
'STRONGMAN' CLAIMS £43K BENEFITS
'Cornwall's Strongest Man' claims £43,000 DISABILITY benefit
By Richard Smith 19/05/2007<br><br>Post edited by: Scott_1984, at: 2007/05/19 22:27
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