'Fake' injury of binman left wheelchair-bound

VIDEO TAKEN OF MAN PLAYING FOOTBALL AND WORKING AS A BOUNCER

- JANE HAYNES Political Correspondent

A SKIVING council bins worker claimed an accident at work had left him in a wheelchair - but was then unmasked as a fraud when he was secretly filmed working as a pub bouncer, doing the shopping and playing football.

The truth was uncovered in a Birmingham City Council investigation after an anonymous tip off that the 'injury' was fake. Video evidence was later captured showing him walking around the shops, driving his car and 'playing football'.

The case was highlighted as one of the most blatant attempts to defraud the council by its own employees over the past year. Nechells councillor Lee Marsham said it was "a shocking state of affairs that someone would so blatantly do that".

The worker involved, a loader on a bins crew, resigned his role in the waste services department after being presented with the evidence against him. He has not been prosecuted.

The details are set out in the council's annual counter fraud report for the past year, which was presented to the council's audit committee this month.