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The Sunday Express, 5 February 2006 |
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THESE are the first shocking pictures of two of Britain's most shameful scroungers. |
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David Graham and Elaine Dack both claimed to be disabled and unable to walk more than a few yards without severe pain. But both cheats were convicted of benefit fraud after their lies were exposed by investigators. |
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Graham, a 58-year-old Rochdale man, pocketed thousands of pounds in disability benefits after claiming that he was virtually unable to walk and required daily care to wash and feed himself. But investigators discovered that his only handicap was a golf handicap. |
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They filmed Graham playing twice a week and in these exclusive pictures he can clearly be seen walking and swinging his club without any difficulty. |
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In the second case, Dack, a 43-yearold Preston woman, was able to get a free Land Rover from the Benefits Agency after she claimed a knee injury prevented her from walking. |
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Yet investigators from the Department for Work and Pensions secretly filmed her working as a building labourer, carrying sacks of cement and pushing a wheelbarrow filled with bricks. |
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Both cases will be highlighted in an investigation into the widespread problem of benefit fraud to be shown on Tonight With Trevor McDonald on Monday. |
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Last night shadow welfare minister David Ruffley said: "Every instance of proven fraud is taking money out of the pockets of genuine claimants - and the hardworking taxpayer. |
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"The only way we're going to get people out of benefit dependency and back into work - which many of them want - is to have a properly resourced medical service. |
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"Only if we have structured medical examinations can we diagnose people's illnesses and help them. Without that, too many people are going to be stuck in the poverty trap."
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Tonight With Trevor McDonald will be shown on ITV1 at 8pm tomorrow. |
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