In an example person A and person B had agreed to send 0.5 BTC each making the channel balance 1 BTC. Person A send 0.5 to person Person B and person B send 0.1 making the balance Person A = 0.1 BTC and person B = 0.9 BTC.
Then person B goes offline and Person A wanted to cheat Person B by sending an outdated version of the commitment transaction to the blockchain showing a balance of Person A 0.6 BTC and person B 0.4 BTC. and the person B due to being offline failed to detect the cheat before the timelock expires. Person B will only be able to claim 0.4 instead of the 0.9 BTC and the rest will be claimed by the cheater person A which is 0.6 BTC instead of 0.1 BTC
This way the cheater is able to get more BTC in expense of the other party. I hope I explain it clear enough.