A LIMOUSINE-driving benefits scrounger - who went jogging three times a week while claiming to be wheelchair-bound - was given more time to pay a confiscation order yesterday.

Businessman John Moses was jailed for fraud last month.

He had claimed to be seriously disabled, suffering from osteo-arthritis, sciatica, vertigo, blackouts and to be going blind when, in fact, the 50-year-old was so fit he went running regularly and was caught on camera carrying bricks and cement to build a wall.

The fraudster claimed £42,000 in benefits, between 1994 and 1997, and was jailed for 18 months following a two-year investigation by DSS fraud officers.

His 44-year-old wife, Victoria, was jailed for ten months at Newcastle Crown Court after being found guilty of false accounting.

She had claimed disability living allowance for breathlessness and angina, yet a medical examiner could only find that she was four stones overweight and had a suntan from a jaunt to the Algarve.

The pair claimed disability living allowance, income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

John Moses, of Mazine Terrace, Haswell, County Durham, appeared at Teesside Crown Court yesterday when his legal team asked for more time to be allowed for him to pay part of his order.

Last October, a jury at Teesside Crown Court found Moses guilty of making false benefit claims, aiding and abetting his wife to make false claims, and intimidating a witness when he sent a letter to a DSS investigator.

Moses was last month ordered to pay a £20,000 confiscation order within nine months or be jailed for a further 12 months.

Yesterday, Tim Roberts, for Moses, asked Judge Peter Armstrong to allow extra time for him to pay the £20,000 due to problems concerning the sale of land.

Judge Armstrong agreed to let Moses have an extra three months to pay.