Benefits cheat who sailed his private YACHT across the Atlantic and owned a French farmhouse is jailed for £30,000 fraud Graham Axford jailed for four months for benefits fraud Cyclist wrongly took housing and council tax benefits Kept his Welsh property and part-owned French farmhouse a secret A benefits cheat, who sailed across the Atlantic in his private yacht while receiving incapacity payments and illegally pocketing nearly £30,000 in housing and council tax handouts, has been jailed for four months today. Graham Axford, 58, who was exposed in a BBC Panorama programme called 'Britain on the Fiddle' secretly owned a property in Wales and part-owned a French farmhouse in Normandy, which he restored. During the fraud Axford, of South Norwood, Croydon, south London, who has claimed incapacity benefit since 1995, sailed his £25,000 private 42-foot yacht from South Carolina to the Azores in the North Atlantic - a journey of 2,900 miles. Graham Axford said he 'resented' the accusations made against him, but was found guilty of benefit fraud 'On any view you have a joint interest in or owned part of a home in France by 2003 and in 2007 you declared to the council that you were not paying a mortgage and that was a blatant lie,' Croydon Crown Court Judge Peter Gow QC told him. You were paying a mortgage on a property in Wales that you owned and later sold, although it was in negative equity. This was a fraud carried out over a significant period of time and you have been overpaid benefits as a result of your dishonest claims. He tried to lie his way out of trouble during his trial, clashing with the prosecutor and swallowing medication in the witness box while claiming: 'I'm trying not to get angry here, you are trying to twist this. 'I've had this from the council for two bloody years and I have just had to take a pill to stop my heart racing.' The benefits cheat failed to declare he owned a property in Wales that he bought in 1984 and had a mortgage for. He also did not reveal he part owned a farmhouse in Normandy He was convicted of three charges of dishonestly making a false representation to the London Borough of Croydon on a housing benefit and council tax benefit application form by failing to declare property ownership in France and Wales, once in 2003 and twice in 2007, resulting in a loss of £29,456.55. During the fraud keen cyclist Axford, who stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate in the 2010 local elections, deliberately kept his Welsh property and French farmhouse a secret. He bought the Welsh property for cash in 1984 and claimed in court he had transferred complete ownership to his ex-wife Suzanne in 1997 and the Land Registry were wrong in recording him as the owner. Have I told a deliberate lie? No, and I resent the accusation,' said Axford before he broke down in the witness box. No charges were brought regarding Axford's incapacity claim, which he made for a back injury following a motorcycle accident, but it did not stop him participating in a twenty-four hour time-trial championship two years ago as a member of Addiscombe Cycling Club. Not expecting a custodial sentence he cycled in for his sentencing today and his bike remains locked to the court's railings. Axford failed to comply with a confiscation questionnaire and Judge Gow told him: 'Responsibility to comply with the court order is yours Mr Axford and the court has the ultimate sanction of imprisonment if you fail to comply.' Len Furlong, defending, said: 'He is a man with health problems, cardiac heart disease and a degenerative spine. 'He does work within the community, carries out duties in a soup kitchen, volunteers at a crisis centre, does cycle training for the disabled and on Friday's works in a charity shop for the blind.'