A benefit fraudster was jailed after he was caught climbing ladders and mopping stairs while claiming that crippling back pain stopped him from working.

Self-employed cleaner Graham Cook cheated the taxpayer out of more than £28,000 by stating he walked with a stick and could not climb stairs without a handrail, Bradford Crown Court was told yesterday.

Over four years, Cook, 46, of New Cross Street, West Bowling, Bradford, falsely claimed income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

He was locked up for three months after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates’ Court to two offences of benefit fraud.

Sentencing him, Judge Peter Benson said Cook’s benefit claims, in July 2007, were fraudulent from the outset and went on for a considerable period of time.

He said he was unfit for work and gave “somewhat colourful detail” of his medical condition.

All the time, he had several cleaning contracts and was climbing ladders and lifting heavy objects.

Prosecutor Laura Addy said Cook tried to claim incapacity benefit but was given income support instead.

He claimed it took him two hours to wash, dress and eat breakfast.

He also said he sometimes needed help even to stand and he could walk only 800 metres, using a stick, and not all on bad days.

He was unable to carry anything heavy and needed a rail to get upstairs, the court heard.

In fact, Cook had cleaning contracts at residential blocks in the Bradford and Ilkley areas. His employers said he was never off sick and never complained of back pain.

He swept and mopped stairs, carried buckets and scaled ladders to change lightbulbs.

Cook told benefit fraud investigators he was a compulsive gambler and had been for 24 years. “You don’t become a compulsive gambler without being a compulsive liar as well,” he said when he was interviewed.

In mitigation, Cook’s barrister, Emma Downing, said he had repaid £982 out of his benefits.

He was of previous good character and there was no evidence of an extravagant lifestyle, the court heard.

Cook had sought help from Gamblers’ Anonymous and gained a health and social care qualification at Shipley College.

After the case, Minister for Welfare Reform, David Freud, said: “Benefit cheats need to know our investigators are actively targeting them.

“Fraudulently claiming benefits is stealing from the taxpayer and taking support from others who need it. These cheats can end up with criminal records and will have to pay back their ill-gotten gains.”