A MAN has been jailed for eight months after being caught playing rugby while claiming more than £900,000 compensation for wrist injuries.

David Ribchester claimed a workplace accident left him unable to tie his shoelaces or open a jam jar lid.

But the 31-year-old was secretly filmed playing rugby, including grabbing the ball with both hands and going into a hard tackle on an opponent.

Judge Nicholas Cooke told Ribchester: "It is greed that has brought you to this and unfortunately there is a lot of greed out there.

"Genuinely injured people putting forward wholly honest claims are viewed sceptically because of the publicity in relation to this sort of matter.

"Anyone who is tempted to behave in a dishonest way to the extent that you did by attempting to exploit a system which exists to compensate the genuinely injured will end up going to prison."

Ribchester appeared before The Old Bailey in London today (THURS) for sentencing, having previously pleaded guilty to fraud.

The court heard that Ribchester had genuinely suffered soft tissue damage to both wrists in February 2006 when he fell 5ft to the ground when a ladder came away from a refrigerated lorry owned by Stanley-based Schmitz Cargobull. After an investigation, the company admitted liability for the accident and the claim was eventually settled for £50,000.

However, he exaggerated his injuries, telling doctors he needed help getting in and out of the bath, carry out housework, drive his car or pick up his young daughter.

He even told psychiatrists he was emotionally scarred by the accident and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

But insurers began to suspect him as his injuries seemed to be getting worse and put him under surveillance.

He was spotted building garden furniture, carrying heavy shopping bags and finally in October 2009 was filmed playing rugby on two separate occasions. Ribchester was eventually arrested in April.

In mitigation Flavia Kenyon, defending Ribchester, said he was a hard-working family man of previous good character who had never offended before.

Ribchester, of the John F Kennedy estate, in Washington, showed no emotion as the sentence was passed.

Judge Cooke said that it cost a lot of money to set up surveillance operations and added: "Such things probably didn’t exist decades ago, such is the extent that dishonesty may have become endemic in this world."