George Gordon, 52, of Chancellor Court, Toxteth, Liverpool, earlier admitted 20 counts including fraud and obtaining money transfers by deception.

He conned groups into giving him money for projects that did not exist, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Judge Stephen Everett said his audacity “takes a person’s breath away”.

Gordon, who called himself “Reverend Gordon” after obtaining an “ordination” certificate from a US website, obtained the money by applying for various grants from the Merseyside Disability Foundation (MDF).

‘Veneer of respectability’

He used fake names and signatures to falsely represent existing community groups or invent organisations, the court heard.

The conman, who was previously jailed for similar offences, then siphoned off the cash and used part of it to buy his flat.

Gordon was so highly respected he became a member of an MDF panel which allocated funding and he sat on panels which determined his own fraudulent applications, the court heard.

Judge Everett said: “You pleaded guilty to a callous set of offences of dishonesty, the audacity of which takes a person’s breath away.

“You posed as a responsible and decent individual. You clothed yourself with an air of respectability and trustworthiness.

“In doing so you used that false cloth, that veneer of respectability, to dupe a number of honest, decent and vulnerable persons to achieve your dishonest aims.

“And your dishonest aims were simply to get money for your own ends.”

From BBC News

The new minister for employment, Mark Hoban, attributed the increase to recent improvements to the work capability assessment (WCA), the test designed to determine who should receive benefits and who should be classified as fit for work.

“We are determined to carry on improving the assessment so those who are too unwell to work get the financial support they need, while those who can work get the help they need to get a job,” he said. “With annual independent reviews and by working with medical experts and charities, we have substantially improved the WCA process, which is resulting in a fairer system.”

Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, who earlier this year resigned from a panel advising the government on the policy because of his concerns about the system, said the test remained “deeply flawed” and called for further improvements.

“We are pleased to see that fewer people are being inappropriately declared fit for work, and that more people will have unconditional access to the ESA benefit they so desperately need. However, we still have a long way to go. The work capability assessment used to determine eligibility for ESA is deeply flawed and does properly not recognise the impact of mental health problems on ability to work,” he said.

“The system is based on assumptions that claimants need to be forced back to work, rather than supported on their own terms; and that those not well enough to go back to work are somehow perceived as scroungers. These attitudes only serve to further damage individuals’ mental health and increase the time until they may be ready to return to work.”

Richard Hawkes, chief executive of the disability charity Scope, said: “Some people genuinely can’t work. This doesn’t mean they are scroungers. It’s good that the government appears to be acknowledging this. But there remains an alarming dossier of evidence that the work capability assessment is a deeply flawed test.”

The quarterly statistical release showed that 54% of new claimants assessed were found to be able to work, while 46% were eligible for the benefit. Those eligible for payments fall into two categories – 26% were put into the support group, classified as too ill or disabled to work. In May 2010, just 10%-11% of claimants were put into this group.

Twenty percent of claimants were put into the work-related activity group, which means they are currently assessed as too ill or disabled to work, but will be expected to have regular Jobcentre meetings to start preparing them for an eventual return to work.

The Guardian

The charities that will benefit are: Aspire, British Blind Sport, British Ex-Services Wheelchair Sports Association, British Paralympic Association, CP Sport, Dwarf Sports Association, Get Kids Going, Go Kids Go, Panathlon, Riding for the Disabled Association, Special Olympics Great Britain, Sportability, SportsAid, WheelPower

Syeda Irtizaali, Entertainment Commissioning Editor said: “In collaboration with the Channel 4 Paralympics team, we included a number of charities that don’t get quite as much attention so the money raised would really make a difference. We’re hugely proud to have played our part in what has been an amazing summer for UK.”

The new series of The Million Pound Drop returns on Friday at 9pm with C4′s The Last Leg’s Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe playing as a pair for paralympic charities. London 2012 medal winning athletes Greg Rutherford and Louis Smith will also join host Davina McCall in the new series. The Million Pound Drop mobile app has also hit over 1 million downloads just 3 months after its launch.

For more information visit the Channel 4 website