A mother who fleeced the council out of more than £50,000 in benefit by pretending to be single has been spared jail.
Selma Moore, 37, pocketed the cash over six years after claiming she lived alone when in fact she was sharing a home with her partner.
She was caught after a joint investigation between Hastings Borough Council and the Department of Works and Pen
sions and is now paying the money back.
Moore, of Quebec Road, St Leonards, admitted four offences of making false statements to claim housing benefit, income support and council tax benefit between December 2001 and April 2007 when she appeared at Hove Crown Court.
The court heard the mother-of-two, who is now working as a cleaner at a Travelodge Hotel, began claiming benefits in 1998 as a single parent.
In July 2001 she told the authorities her partner, Benjamin Smith, had moved in then five months later informed them he had moved out again.
All of this was true but then Moore failed to let them know Mr Smith had moved back into the family home a month later.
She continued to claim benefits as a single parent and received £50,483.28 she was not entitled to.
The court heard she is paying back the money out of her earnings at the rate of £34 a week and has already repaid more than £2,000.
Ahmed Hossain, defending, said Moore, who has a previous conviction for deception, was remorseful and scared of what would happen to her children if she were jailed.
He said: "She very much accepts responsibility for what she did. The funds were not used for a lavish lifestyle but were spent on simple living expenses.
"The partner who was involved in the claim is no longer living with her."
Recorder James Dingemans QC told Moore he was imposing a suspended prison sentence because of her guilty plea and because she had started to repay the money.
He told her: "The benefit system is a hallmark of a decent, modern democratic state. Offences such as yours undermine public trust and support for such a system. They are time-consuming and expensive offences to be detected and must be deterred."
She was sentenced to 12 months jail suspended for 18 months and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work in the community.
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