A HUSBAND and wife have been convicted of fraudulently claiming up to £69,000 in benefits over more than six years.

Gypsy Dowley, pictured, aged 47, of Camillus Road, Knutton, was jailed yesterday for nine months at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court after admitting six charges of fraudulently claiming incapacity benefit between November 2001 and March 2008.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) calculated that he swindled £26,414 in benefits while working as a door supervisor and a debt collector.

He had claimed he was unable to work due to a serious knee injury and could not walk or even stand for long periods of time without crutches.

His wife Lisa, aged 39, pleaded guilty to two charges of dishonestly obtaining income support and housing and council tax benefit worth up to £43,420 between July 2000 and April 2008.

She is understood to have claimed the benefits while working and making money from car boot sales, and will be sentenced on August 28.

Elizabeth Power, prosecuting on behalf of the DWP, told the court that Gypsy Dowley was caught during Operation Boiler, a joint investigation with Staffordshire Police targeting nightclub doormen committing benefit fraud.

She said that he had been claiming benefits since 1994 under his original name, as Stuart James Dowley, but working under his new name of Gypsy Dowley, which he had changed by deed poll.

She said: "During the course of this operation we recovered records from various licensed premises in relation to Mr Dowley.

"He was subsequently placed under investigation and he and his wife were both arrested.

"Officers found pay slips, a P45 from a previous job and a CV detailing his work history at his address."

She said investigators uncovered links to a house in Best Street, Fenton, which Dowley had been renting out for £400 a month for five years.

Records recovered from the Icon bar in Newcastle showed that he had worked there as a door supervisor on a regular basis for the last three and a half years.

He also worked for a company named Platinum Security Services as an area manager and had been a driver for a debt collection firm, earning up to £496 a week.

The P45 found at Dowley's home also showed that he had spent almost a year working as an alcohol and drug abuse counsellor in 2001 and 2002.

Miss Power said: "Dowley was interviewed and admitted the offences, although he said the work for Platinum Security Services was unpaid."

Mark Bromley, representing Dowley, said his client had claimed incapacity benefit after shattering his knee falling on a metal staircase in 1983, while employed by the Post Office.

He retired on health grounds in 1989, but became restless sitting at home.

Mr Bromley said: "He was at home, stagnating and suffering from depression and was asked by a friend if he wanted to do the odd day as a door supervisor.

"He saw it as a way to get out of the house. It was something he enjoyed and did well.

"He bitterly regrets what he did and has come to an arrangement with the DWP to repay the money."

Sentencing Dowley, Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said: "This was committed over a substantial period of time, during which you obtained a series of jobs.

"You were using a false name and false address and you were emphasising and re-emphasising the extensive disabilities you had which you said prevented you from obtaining work."