A CONMAN who staged a fake accident at a Bradford supermarket to pocket thousands of pounds from a bogus insurance claim was branded "a criminal and a thief" by the judge sentencing him.

Fraudster Waheed Iqbal was caught on camera looking round to make sure the coast was clear before pretending to slip on a bag and bang his head at the Lidl store in Manchester Road.

Paramedics took him by wheelchair to an ambulance but he got out on the way to Bradford Royal Infirmary to return to the supermarket to make sure the 'accident' was recorded by the manager.

He went to A&E the next day complaining of pain in his head, a leg injury and vomiting.

Iqbal, 36, of Hollings Road, Girlington, Bradford, staged the tumble on December 8, 2012, while under investigation for making a similar false claim against a Shipley gym, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

The previous May, he alleged he had been knocked out with a broken nose when using a punchbag at the Nuffield Health Fitness & Wellbeing Centre.

He demanded £3,800 damages, saying a buckle on one of the straps had come loose and struck him in the face.

A staff member at the gym noted the injury as a 'tiny 1cm cut' across the bridge of Iqbal's nose, before reporting it in the accident book.

Iqbal visited A&E two days later, saying he had been knocked out for ten seconds and complaining of numbness, headaches, and vomiting. He was discharged with medical advice.

He made a claim to insurers saying he had been knocked unconscious, left with a permanent scar on his nose, and had suffered neck injuries, flashbacks, anxiety, and difficulty sleeping.

He was offered £1,000 compensation from the gym but turned it down, demanding more than £3,000.

Last month, Iqbal was convicted by Bradford and Keighley magistrates of two charges of fraud by false representation and sent to the Crown Court for sentence.

The magistrates found that the gym claim was greatly exaggerated and the Lidl claim completely bogus.

Yesterday, Judge Jonathan Rose sentenced Iqbal to ten months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with 280 hours of unpaid work. He was ordered to pay £8,200 in compensation and £620 prosecution costs.

The money represented loss to the insurance companies totalling £8,000 and £200 of wasted NHS funds.

In mitigation, Iqbal's barrister, Nick Askins, said his client had been a fool.

But Judge Rose told Iqbal: "You are not a fool. You are a criminal. You are a thief.

"The public are tired of you, and people like you, making fraudulent claims that impact on them and the companies involved."

He spared Iqbal, who runs a textile business, immediate jail because he cared for his elderly and infirm parents on his own after the untimely death of his brother.

After the case, Chief Inspector Dave Wood, head of the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department, said: “Iqbal targeted this supermarket and gym knowing they would be fully insured and therefore the perfect victim for his staged accidents and fictitious personal injury claims.

“To add insult to his bogus injury claims, Iqbal also thought nothing of wasting the emergency and health services’ time in a bid to get medical records to bolster his claims."