A WOMAN from Leverington has been given a 12-month community order with 80 hours unpaid work after dishonestly claiming thousands of pounds in benefits over three years.

And in a separate case a Wisbech was also sentenced for benefit fraud.

Carol Driscoll, 56, of Woodgate Road, Leverington, was overpaid benefit totalling more than �8,300 between 2008 and 2011 after she failed to declare that she had returned to work at the end of 2008.

At interview under caution she insisted that she had forgotten to tell Fenland District Council about the change in her circumstances.

However she pleaded guilty at King’s Lynn Magistrates Court last week to four offences of dishonestly failing to promptly report changes in circumstances under the Social Security Administration Act 1992.

Costs of �100 were awarded.

In a separate case, Kveta Sabova, 48, was given a 12-month community order with 40 hours’ unpaid work for falsely claiming more than �5,400 in benefits.

She failed to declare the fact that she had a non-dependant living with her at various addresses in Wisbech between 2008 and 2010.

Because the non-dependant was in work, a deduction should have been made from Sabova’s housing benefit and Council Tax benefit. In total, she was overpaid �5,029.80 housing benefit and �370.53 in Council Tax benefit.

Sabova, now of Westgate, Peterborough, denied the allegations when she was interviewed under caution. But when she appeared at King’s Lynn Magistrates Court last week she pleaded guilty to four offences of knowingly making false representations to obtain benefit under section 112 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992.

The case was brought following a detailed investigation by Fenland District Council.