A BENEFITS cheat who received more than £18,000 after claiming he was “virtually unable to walk” was rumbled by investigators while playing bowls.

John Larder, of Huncoat, was filmed by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officers repeatedly bending down and raising his arms aloft in celebration during a match at Burnley Road Bowling Club in Accrington.

He was also captured on camera tending the green with a petrol-driven lawnmower at the club where he worked as a groundsman.

The 63-year-old, from Burnley Road, had claimed disability living allowance from 2007 to August 2014, but benefits chiefs say the claims were fraudulent from August 2009 onwards.

During that time he pocketed £18,646.

Larder pleaded guilty to failing to notify the DWP of a change in his circumstances affecting his disability living allowance and was bailed to appear for sentence at Burnley Crown Court on Friday, September 4.

Prosecutors said Larder had declared he could only walk a short distance before suffering severe discomfort. He also claimed he needed assistance washing, going to the toilet, getting dressed and “cutting up his meat seven days a week”, they added.

Led by investigator Peter Litherland, a DWP operation filmed Larder playing in a crown green bowling match at Burnley Road Bowling Club in June last year.

He was captured repeatedly bending down to pick up his marker, bowls and jack, as well as dispatching his woods during competition.

The footage showed him walking unaided “backwards and forwards across the green for the duration of the matches which lasted 45 minutes to an hour”, prosecutors said.

Larder was also filmed operating a lawnmower in his role as greenkeeper, while further surveillance witnessed him pushing a trolley at a supermarket and on shopping trips with his wife.

A DWP spokesman said: “Only a small minority of benefits claimants are dishonest, but cases like this show how we are rooting out the unscrupulous minority who are cheating the system and diverting tax payers’ money.”