A 70-year-old Italian male who was pretending to be blind for over 40 years to get an invalid's pension allowance was arrested after a Police routine car check.

The 'particularly nervous' man was stopped during a routine road check and could not provide a driving licence police said.

'Then we checked his medical record and were amazed to find that he was registered as 100% blind,' the police said.

The man had been claiming a Blind invalid's pension allowance and other benefits from his former employers for 40 years.