Sharon Allison, from Bridlington, pretended to live alone with her three children and claimed £45,000 over three years while her partner Andrew Parker was an £8,000-a-year laboratory technician at Bridlington School. She was in fact living with Mr Parker.
The DWP was unable to give a revised figure for the amount she could have claimed legally because it was too complicated to work out. They estimated loss to the taxpayer was £19,000, but her defence barrister said it was more like £10,000.
Miss Allison had initially denied any wrongdoing. She pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to notify a change of circumstances for income support and housing benefit between 2003 and 2006. She also pleaded guilty to a charge of making a false statement on October 6, 2005, that she was not living with a partner.
Miss Allison's barrister Anil Murray told the court Andrew Parker was not her partner any more and she was now expecting a baby by another man. "This lady has had very difficult times with partners in the past," said Mr Murray. One previous partner had kicked her, left her without money and spent it on cars while another was an alcoholic and abusive. He said it all that made it much harder for her to commit to a relationship with Andrew Parker, which was why he only lived at the house for three days at a time at first.
Judge Roger Thorn said he was prepared to take a lenient view, having borne in mind the delay in proceedings, her pregnancy and the net loss to the public purse was less than first calculated.
Mr Thorn ordered she should be given a four-month suspended prison sentence, but because she was pregnant did not have to do unpaid work, but would be given a 12-month supervision order.
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