A woman who claimed to be housebound and unable to walk without crutches has been jailed after being caught on CCTV taking part in Zumba and body pump classes. Helen Green, 49, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, fraudulently obtained over £25,000 in Personal Independence Payment (PIP) between January 2020 and March 2023.
Green told the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that she suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis in every joint and a slipped disc, leaving her housebound and reliant on crutches. She claimed she could not walk for more than five minutes without assistance and needed help with washing, bathing, dressing, and preparing meals.
However, a tip-off to the DWP fraud line led to an investigation, which revealed Green was a member of a running club and had completed a 10k race in one hour and three minutes. CCTV footage also showed her regularly attending the gym for Zumba, body combat, body pump, core blast, and spin classes.
Green pleaded guilty to dishonestly failing to notify a change in circumstances and was sentenced to seven months in prison at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Tuesday. Mandy Tobias from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Helen Green pretended she had limited movement, but instead was a regular runner and active in gym classes. She did this for her own greed.”
Minister for Transformation Andrew Western described Green’s deception as a “slap in the face to taxpayers” and those who genuinely depend on PIP. He added: “Helen Green wasn’t just burning calories at the gym, she was also peddling lies and our investigators caught up with her.”
