Amid the thousands of claims made to a Kent benefits office each week, some are fraudulent.

Now staff at the Department of Work and Pensions' office in Chaucer Road, Canterbury have revealed the 10 most bizarre fraud excuses.

They include a man whose landlady was chasing him for "payment in kind" and a doctor who claimed he was an MI5 agent.

Here's how NOT to claim benefits:

Trying to claim housing benefit as a single parent, a woman claimed her husband didn’t live in the house, but “resides in a tent in the back garden”. A search of Google Maps revealed the home had no back garden and she withdrew the claim.

A judge told one fraudster that he “has a very clever dog” after the defendant told the court his post had “been eaten by his poodle”. However, housing benefit cheques sent to the house were spared the dog’s craving for paper and were duly cashed.

One mother defended her daughter’s failure to declare a £30,000 win on Deal or No Deal while on Income Support by saying it didn’t count because she had given all the money away to a drug dealer.

One claimant said he had not declared he was working because he owed money to his landlady who was chasing him for “payment in kind” while in high heels and brandishing a sex toy.

Asked why she had started claiming for being a single parent just after her marriage, a woman replied that she had fallen out of love with her husband the day after their wedding and needed cash to pay for the buffet.

A doctor, who had written books on UFO sightings, said he only stole £100,000 in benefits because he was an undercover MI5 agent. He claimed his Spanish villa, where he had been claiming unemployment benefit for scores of fictitious people, was “a base for fellow agents”.

One man found to have been employed said he had accidentally clicked the “no, I’m not working” box when filling out a benefit form. He blamed the mistake on a temporary out-of-body experience.

When a man claiming the highest rate of Disability Living Allowance for being housebound and “riddled with arthritis” was caught working as a JCB operator on a building site, he said he didn’t think it mattered because his colleague transported him around the site so he never had to walk on uneven ground.

A wife told a court she never revealed her husband was illegally claiming housing benefit – by pretending he lived alone – because she “always thought he was gay”.

A security guard defended himself for claiming Jobseekers Allowance while working at a nightclub, saying he thought he could work nights and receive benefits.