Amputee claimed £40,000 benefits - then took part in gruelling desert trek on TV

Karl Sacks, 48, was jailed for 10 weeks after pleading guilty to five counts of benefit fraud.

The father-of-three took part in a BBC2 documentary called Beyond Boundaries, which involved a coast-to-coast trek across Nicaraguan desert.

The participants had to abseil, climb and sail their way across 220 miles of swamps, lakes, desert and jungle, pushing and pulling two wheelchair users up and down muddy ravines and even a 5,000ft volcano.

Sacks, from Alwoodley, Leeds, who lost part of his leg in a shark diving trip in 1995, also claimed for severe disability allowance while working as a luxury car salesman as well as profiting from the sale of property.

Michael Rawlinson, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court that Sacks came to the attention of the Department of Work and Pensions after embarking on his trip to Nicaragua.

Benefits staff judged he had failed to notify them of his increased mobility and had been overpaid disability living allowance of 6,300.

He also failed to notify them of a change in circumstances when he worked buying and selling prestige cars, enabling him to pocket a further 4,375.

Mr Rawlinson said he was also overpaid 29,972 in income support.

He said the amount he claimed illegally over seven and a half years totalled 40,600.

Jailing him, judge Geoffrey Marson told Sacks: "You (were] a man of good character until you committed these offences.

"On the other side of the coin you have dishonestly obtained for yourself over 40,000 of public money – money to which others were entitled and you were not.

"It is quite impossible to pass over this offending in any way other than an immediate custodial sentence."

Joseph Ganner, mitigating, said: "The defendant is fully aware of the serious view the court takes of this kind of offending."

Referring to his TV appearance, he said: "From what he told me it was blatantly obvious that he would be detected.

"He was star-struck and gave no proper thought to what he was doing. He acted in a way that was ill-judged and he bitterly regrets that now."