Jazz dancer, 61, is spared jail over disability benefits fraud

Terence Read said he was crippled by arthritis and barely able to walk but his condition improved following a hip replacement operation.

He failed to notify the change in his circumstances to the Department for Work and Pensions and officials later covertly filmed him dancing enthusiastically at a swing music night after receiving an anonymous tip-off that he was wrongly claiming Disability Living Allowance.

Read, of Blackley, Manchester, was caught on camera gliding across the dance floor and spinning his dance partner around while being cheered on by crowds of onlookers at an event in his home city.

Video surveillance showed Read carrying a set of heavy speakers from a van into a property and also dancing energetically – dressed in suit and hat – with a female partner at one of his events.

Read pleaded guilty last month of failing to notify the change in circumstances.

Sentencing Read at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Rudland told him that in his case public interest was not served by imposing a custodial sentence. He was given a 12-month community order and ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work.

The court heard that Read had legitimately claimed for benefits for 10 years from March 1995.

He suffered arthritis from the age of 25 and in the early 1990s he was virtually housebound.

However, the operation on his left leg provided "instant relief" and proved such a success he was able to take an interest in his new hobby.

He illegally continued to claim Disability Living Allowance between June 2005 and December 2008 to the tune of 19,915.

Judge Rudland told him: "You learned to live frugally and contentedly, going out rarely, until the dancing came into your life, which seemed to transform your joie de vivre.

"There is absolutely no suggestion you are a shirker who has avoided work."

Read, of Northwold Drive, has paid back 3,000 of the money owed and a plan is in place to settle the remainder.

The court was told that Read also claimed housing and council tax benefit during the three-and-a-half year fraudulent period but faced no charges on those matters because he was already entitled to them.

David James, mitigating, said his client was still affected by arthritis and before the operation had essentially been unable to move his left leg.

He said the dance evenings were not a weekly event and Read went through the pain barrier as he suffered discomfort in the following days.