Ann Townsend, 54, from Chaucer Road, Parson Cross, dishonestly claimed income support, housing and council tax benefits over a four-year period while she was working as a hospital cleaner.
She has several previous convictions for fiddling benefits and theft and was arrested in August, 2009.
But Recorder David Hatton QC, sitting at Sheffield Crown Court, decided not to jail her because of the length of time the case had been hanging over her.
Angela Wrottesley, prosecuting for the DWP, apologised to the court for the delay.
The judge told Townsend: “Your record suggests quite clearly that you have become or are capable of becoming a thoroughly dishonest woman.
“The offences are so serious that only a prison sentence is appropriate.
“I would undoubtedly have ordered that but for the fact that I’m conscious that you committed these offences a long time ago.
“You have had this and the threat of prison hanging over you since that time. That causes me to come to the conclusion that I can properly suspend the inevitable sentence of imprisonment.”
Townsend admitted failing to notify a change in circumstances and supplying false information.
She claimed income support in February 2006 claiming she was too ill to work - while working as a cleaner at the Northern General Hospital.
She was overpaid £26,109.60 up to July, 2009.
Her partner also claimed housing and council tax benefits saying she was not working. Townsend lied on forms she submitted to the DWP in January, 2006.
She took her partner’s surname to work at the hospital - as Ann Spiers.
Miss Wrottesley said: “She admitted it was an attempt to lay a false trail and she would not have been identified by the usual checks.”
She immediately admitted to investigators that she had been working and not declaring her income and said she was trying to relieve her debts of £10,000.
In January 2003 she was given a six-month rehabilitation order by Sheffield magistrates for falsely claiming benefits and asked for 65 offences to be taken into consideration.
Townsend was given a two-year suspended jail term in 2005 at Sheffield Crown Court for ten offences of theft.
James Gould, defending, said she had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and the DWP had taken a long time to bring proceedings.
Both she and her mother had health problems.
He said: “She has made a grave mistake. The money she wrongly received was used to pay off spiralling debts with ever increasing interest rates.”
Townsend was given a nine-month prison term suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid community work and a 12-month specified activity at a women’s project.
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