A benefits cheat’s curfew will stop a month early – so he can take his disabled son to a basketball training camp.

Shaun Ryan, 57, of Palmer Street, Chippenham, was given an 18 week suspended prison sentence in February and ordered to serve a six month curfew after he admitted making a false statement a decade earlier with a view to fraudulently obtaining the disability living allowance.

He was back before the courts in March to get the 6pm to 8am curfew changed so he could go out into the garden to feed his pigeons and take his disabled son to a pool tournament in Yorkshire in mid-April.

And this week Ryan returned to Swindon Magistrates’ Court to ask for the curfew to be lifted in the first week of August so he could drive his boy to a basketball training camp.

“He’s at a level now he’s going to try to get into the England team wheelchair basketball,” he told the justices.

“He’s got to go through a lot of training during August then they do a selection programme.”

After hearing there had been no issues with his compliance with the curfew, magistrates said the tag would be lifted on August 3. Chairman of the bench Peter Wells said: “You have been on a curfew since February and it is clear from probation there have been no issues.”

Mr Wells added: “I hope your son does well.” Ryan replied: “He was on the brink of the Great Britain squad.”