Story By: Koen Berghuis, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: CEN

A tattooed benefit fraudster who claimed he was unfit to work and travel is being prosecuted together with the doctor who signed him off sick after he posted online snaps of himself holidaying in Thailand.

The 30-year-old unemployed man, identified by local media as Ufuk Y., was found guilty of benefit fraud at a court in Hanover, the capital of the German state of Lower Saxony.

Job centre workers received an anonymous tip that the tattooed man was in fact holidaying in far-flung places.

Pictures Credit: CEN

He reportedly used fake medical certificates to claim that he was unfit to work and travel.

Meanwhile, the chiselled 30-year-old really spent six months of the year on beaches in Thailand, Dubai, Croatia, Bulgaria and Turkey.

The anonymous tipper also claimed that Ufuk Y. was a pimp who lived with some of his prostitutes and owned three cars.

Meanwhile, the defendant claimed 1,100 EUR (964 GBP) a month in benefits from the German state.

After failing to show up for a job centre appointment, officials discovered that he was not in Germany but was instead loafing on a golden beach in Southeast Asia.

In court, the defendant claimed that he did not know that he was supposed to show up at appointments and report his whereabouts to the job centre.

He said: “It was all was bad, I should have done it differently.”

The court fined the defendant 3,000 EUR (2,630 EUR) with Judge Reinhard Meffert calling the defendant’s behaviour “a real scandal”.

The judge added that the doctor who allegedly signed the fake certificates will also face criminal charges.

Since the judgement, Ufuk Y. has stopped receiving benefits and has filed for private bankruptcy, according to reports.

In December, he found a job with a real estate agency earning 860 EUR (753 GBP) a month.