A benefit cheat who claimed thousands in disability allowance by saying he could not walk was caught out by a neighbour who filmed him using heavy machinery - to plough his lawn.

Christopher Botting claimed he could only walk ten metres from his front door to his car "on a good day" and claimed he had "no way of bending" and could not "lift anything".

But the 52-year-old dad-of-two, whose passion in life is gardening, was exposed when a neighbour produced more than eight hours of footage of him toiling for long hours in his garden - including using a heavy rotovator to churn up his soil.

Over almost two years, the "brazen" fraudster was paid almost £15,000 in disability benefit allowance to which he was not entitled, which he will now repay.