IN a flat cap and football shirt, the 55-year-old man strolls through the city unaware his every movement is being tracked.
Few would even notice him on his 90-minute tour of Durham?s cobbled streets, over the River Wear, into the bookies and up to the Job Centre.
But this man claims his body is so racked with arthritis that he can only cover 40 metres in 11 minutes.
Yet here he is, pacing around like a fairly fit and healthy man.
Every week, he is handed ?49.10 in Disability Living Allowance plus ?18.65 in Lower Rate Care Allowance ? given to him because he says he is unable to cook himself a hot meal for fear his arthritic bones will cause him to fall in the kitchen.
Add that figure to the ?91.80 weekly Jobseekers? Allowance he gets because, despite his health, he is still ?looking for work? and that adds up to a tidy ?159.55 per week.
Today though, benefit fraud investigators on Operation Ramesses are watching him.
Seven investigators are stationed around Durham, milling about like ordinary shoppers.
One of them, dressed casually, could pass for a tourist filming the pretty scenery on his camcorder. What he is actually taping is video evidence showing the man?s walk.
As the benefit claimant strides up Hallgarth Street towards the Job Centre, where he signs on every fortnight, another man on a nearby bench films him with a camera concealed in what looks like an ordinary bottle of pop.
The investigation is ongoing and the man ? who has not been charged ? will be called in for questioning next week.
Latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that around ?900million was claimed fraudulently in the UK in the year to September 2008. Of this, around ?200million is estimated to be fake disability claims. The most common fraud is for housing benefit.
In 2007, 6,756 people were convicted for fiddling their benefits.
It is impossible to say how many people in the UK are sponging off the system. But we do know the problem has been declining over the past decade.
Such success can be partly attributed to TV adverts warning of the consequences of benefit fraud, as well as the BBC1 programme On The Fiddle, which exposes fakers.
The vast majority of intelligence comes from anonymous calls to the National Benefit Fraud Hotline. It was a tip-off that led to the man in Durham being tailed.
?Often someone starts bragging about the amount they?re getting in benefits and that can really wind people up,? says an investigator named John, who must conceal his full name to do his job effectively.
?A woman phoned up recently who was so enraged at another person?s false claims, she was in tears.?
Disability allowance is not means tested, so no matter how much money you earn or have in savings, you are entitled to benefit up to the age of 65.
One of the problems for the fraud team is that people are awarded a ?lifetime award? and do not need to go through any kind of regular review to ensure they are claiming the right amount.
?In the 1990s, the benefit claim form only needed the person to get a friend or family member to verify what he or she was saying,? says John. ?Now they are required to have a doctor?s signature.
?Those people who are given a lifetime award ? because their disability is regarded as permanent ? are sent a letter every year informing them of how much their benefits will go up by and asking them to tell us of any change in circumstance. We suspect a lot of them just read the amount they?re going to get and then ignore the rest of the three-page letter explaining changes in circumstance.?
The most common complaints listed by fakers are a bad back and arthritis.
Following tip-offs, the investigators apply for permission from within the DWP to use surveillance. If granted, they have a three-month window in which to prove the person is making false claims.
?We try to get three positive observations over, say, a three or four-week period,? John explains. ?We can?t just watch them Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday because the person could argue that that had been a good week, when their disability was not affecting them as much.
Disguised
?Depending on what you?ve got after that first month, we may need to carry on surveillance or we may have enough to call the person in for interview.?
As well as using the camcorder and hidden camera in the bottle, investigators have access to an array of equipment.
Tiny hidden cameras can be disguised as shirt buttons, mobile phones or even key fobs. One car has been transformed into a Big Brother-style spy centre, equipped with cameras in the back headrests.
The anti-fraud team even have a camera hidden in a coat hanger.
But the supreme weapon is a white transit van kitted out with cameras.
Inside the back, you really feel like you are on a secret mission. In front of you are three screens, one showing all four views from the front, back and either side of the van, and two others showing larger views.
A remote control allows you to rotate the cameras and zoom in and out while a computer records the scenes on DVD.
Once enough footage and surveillance has been collected, the investigators send the person a letter asking them to come in for an interview, under caution, and explains they have a right to legal representation.
?In the interview, a lot of people will hold their hands up and admit what they?ve done,? says John.
Following the interview, evidence is sent to an independent decision maker who will advise on the course of action.
If the amount the person has over-claimed is less than ?2,000 and they admit the offence, they may be given a caution.
If they do not admit the offence, they may opt for an administrative penalty which is a fine of 30 per cent of the total amount fraudulently claimed.
If the amount is more than ?2,000, the person may be prosecuted ? and if found guilty face up to five years in prison.
Convicted fraudsters are also obliged to pay back all the overpaid money.
A DWP spokesman says: ?Benefit fraud is at its lowest level ever, but we know there is more to be done.
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