Former serviceman Mark Lloyd claimed that he couldn’t walk on uneven surfaces, bend or stretch, and needed walking aids after suffering a slipped disc and PTSD. Lloyd had been medically discharged from the Army in 2011, applied for personal independence payments in October 2014, and then reapplied in July 2016, saying his conditioned had worsened. The Welshman collected a total sum of £6,551.80 ($8502 USD) in payments, according to The Guardian.
But pictures soon surfaced of “Action Man Mark” climbing Kilimanjaro, competing in the World Powerboat Championships in Malta, competing in three triathlons, and winning one of them.
Lloyd was taken to court, where his attorney pleaded that Lloyd’s army training allowed him to withstand the immense physical pain that accompanied these activities.
District judge Martin Brown dubbed that defense as “nonsense.”
Laura Walters, prosecutor in the Crown Prosecution Service’s specialist fraud division, said to The Guardian that
“Mark Lloyd flouted the system to claim thousands of pounds of disability benefits, all the while taking part in tough physical challenges. Lloyd vastly overstated his care needs in order to claim the cash, but he could not hide from the overwhelming evidence put forward by the prosecution, including photos of his participation in a climb of Mt Kilimanjaro and his participation in a triathlon.”
Lloyd has received 28 weeks in jail, eight of them coming from a separate road-rage incident, and a £620 fine.
