Stewart Lorains, 54, of Liverton Mines, was an 'active and prominent cricketer' for Boosbeck Cricket Club while claiming disability benefits
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A cricketer who batted for his local club while claiming disability benefits has been ordered to repay the state more than £16,000.
One-time boxing coach and football ref Stewart Lorains, 54, was back in court for a Proceeds of Crime hearing today.
Lawyers agreed he made £24,505 from crime and he was ordered to pay the “available amount” of £16,209.
He may have to sell his £74,500 home on St Cuthbert’s Walk, Liverton Mines to satisfy the order.
His barrister Tamara Pawson said: “That’s the only main asset.”
Judge Peter Bowers ordered Lorains to pay the money in six months, or serve a year in prison.
He told Lorains: “You’ll have to try and decide how you’re going to try and arrange to pay this sum.”
Teesside Crown Court heard of Lorains’ three-year benefit fraud when he was sentenced last September.
He started receiving disability living allowance legitimately in November 2008.
He said he suffered from medical conditions including diabetes, asthma and psoriatic arthropathy.
He said he walked very slowly, was in constant pain, had difficulty getting out of bed and needed help washing, dressing, eating and going to the toilet.
He failed to declare improvements in his health from May 2009 and was overpaid £22,340 in benefits, said the prosecution.
He was an “active and prominent cricketer” for Boosbeck Cricket Club between 2009 and 2012.
Investigators gathered statistics and watched him playing cricket when he kept wicket and opened batting.
Lorains admitted failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions of a change in his circumstances affecting benefits, his first offence.
Ms Pawson said Lorains was an upstanding member of the community and an active sportsman and described cricket as his life before the onset of rheumatoid arthritis and other health problems.
She said he self-medicated to play cricket again when his condition slightly improved, exaggerated the extent of his poor health and continued with his claim.
He was the primary carer for his wife who had severe arthritis, diabetes and limited mobility.
At that stage, he offered to repay the DWP at the only rate he could afford, £5 per week.
Passing sentence, Judge Howard Crowson said: “These claims accumulate to what most people would regard as quite a lot of money, and there’s a lot of people doing it.
“So the community as a whole loses substantial sums. The reality is it harms us all.”
He told Lorains that his good character and good works saved him from prison, passing a four-month prison sentence suspended for a year.
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