A DISABLED Kirklees athlete who has competed at the Olympics has been convicted of benefits fraud.
Peter Finbow has been convicted of a £30,000 benefit fraud after failing to declare his Lottery sports funding.
Finbow, of Dewsbury, is a Great Britain wheelchair basketball player and double bronze medallist.
He competed at the Paralympics in Athens 2004 and Beijing in 2008.
A court heard it was while he was at the 2008 Beijing games that he discovered his money had been stopped and he was to be investigated.
Finbow, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of benefit fraud at Leeds Crown Court. He was given an eight-week prison term, suspended for a year.
Prosecutor Michael Rawlinson said that Finbow received monthly payments into his bank account from the UK Sports Lottery Fund over five years.
Part of the grant was to fund his place in the wheelchair basketball team and his travel to the paralympics. The rest, £500 a month, was to cover his living expenses.
Finbow failed to tell the authorities about his change in circumstances and was overpaid £22,427.
He also failed to tell Kirklees Council and received housing and council tax benefits of £7,648.
Mitigating, Robin Sellers said Finbow admitted he should have told the authorities but it was not a case of someone simply going out to work while cheating the system.
Finbow had already paid back £9,000 and would repay the full amount.
