Benefits cheat who claimed to be wheelchair-bound caught after riding ELEPHANTS

Natalie Davis, 51, was handed more than £17,000 in benefits after claiming her ME left her too weak to work

A benefits cheat who claimed she was too ill to walk and recieved more than £17,000 of taxpayer’s cash was caught hot-air ballooning and riding elephants. 

Natalie Davis, 51, started receiving Disability Living Allowance from 1999 after claiming her ME left her wheelchair-bound and needing round-the-clock care.

But Davis was actually enjoying holidays abroad, flying down zip lines and climbing mountains.  

In 2006 she maintained that she still had all the medical issues as well as panic attacks as well as obsessive compulsive disorder.

But in 2007 she took over a massage parlour which police investigated for being a brothel from 2017.

And when a warrant was executed at her home, a digital memory card containing an album of holiday snaps was found.

It included a 2013 trip to Africa, hot-air ballooning, fishing and jeep safari, a 2015 trip to East Asia, riding elephants, on a lilo and a 2016 Snowdonia trip, zip-lining and climbing. 

But Davis was caught after police found photos of her riding an elephant on a 2013 trip to Africa

But Davis was caught after police found photos of her riding an elephant on a 2013 trip to Africa

They also discovered images of her riding a hot-air balloon, despite claiming she was wheelchair-bound

They also discovered images of her riding a hot-air balloon, despite claiming she was wheelchair-bound

Photos of her standing upright and fishing were also uncovered at her home in Bristol by police

Photos of her standing upright and fishing were also uncovered at her home in Bristol by police 

Davis, of Bristol, pleaded guilty to dishonestly failing to notify a change of circumstances between January 6, 2010 and September 1, 2018, amounting to £17,700.15. 

Judge Marcus Pilgerstorfer called for a probation report before sentence on August 22.

Lucy Taylor, prosecuting, told the court: ‘She said she was not able to walk. She said she could walk five metres before the pain was unbearable.

‘She said that was seven days a week and she needed people to help her in and out of a wheelchair.

‘She also said she could not go out alone due to panic attacks and she was at risk of falling in shops or in the street.’ 

Surveillance established supposedly immobile Davis getting in and out of cars, going up and down stairs, cleaning a courtyard, moving rubbish, carrying bags of shopping and banking.

The prosecutor referred to a BBC TV Inside Out West investigation in 2017 in which a reporter tried to speak to her outside her home and she ran – quite fast – into her property.

Davis (riding an elephant in Africa in 2013) pleaded guilty to dishonestly failing to notify a change of circumstances between January 6, 2010 and September 1, 2018, amounting to £17,700

Davis (riding an elephant in Africa in 2013) pleaded guilty to dishonestly failing to notify a change of circumstances between January 6, 2010 and September 1, 2018, amounting to £17,700

In January she was also found guilty of controlling prostitution for gain after buying a massage parlour which was ran as a brothel

In January she was also found guilty of controlling prostitution for gain after buying a massage parlour which was ran as a brothel

Benefit fraud investigators also established she had taken easyJet flights from Bristol to Spain alone and without mobility aids.

When interviewed Davis said her mother had suggested she had bad days, so she was entitled to benefit, the court heard.

She added that when she went on holiday she just laid on sunbeds. Nicholas Clough, defending, said his client had initially claimed legitimately.

He said her raft of illnesses fluctuated day to day and week to week, and reporting any improvement in her mobility to the DWP had been the last thing on her mind.

In January this year Davis pleaded guilty to controlling prostitution for gain. Judge Mark Horton handed her a prison sentence of two years and six months.

He told Davis: ‘You exploited women in the sex industry who you employed for very serious and substantial financial gain.’

Davis successfully appealed the jail term and was handed 12 months prison, suspended for 12 months. 

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