An illegal immigrant who received £400k in benefits for claiming to be paralyzed has been sentenced to seven years in prison after being caught dancing at his own wedding. Mohammed Bouzalim, 37, said he was paralyzed from the neck down, and made false claims for housing benefits, disability living allowance, income support, council tax benefits, special housing benefits, payments for social fund carers, plus more payments from the independent living fund. 

By Mercia — Five stories from yesterday’s Northampton Herald & Post newspaper illustrate the chronic malaise affecting not only one provincial city but Britain as a whole.