A mother-of-three was today starting 12 months behind bars for a £24,400 benefits fraud over nearly three years.

Juliet Shane Sandford, 29, had repeatedly lied to local and national benefit officials that she was a single parent and had no other form of income.

Diane Maudsley, prosecuting, told York Crown Court, sitting in Leeds, that, in reality, Sandford was living as husband and wife with the father of two of her children - council employee and later self-employed ground worker Kevin Wynn - in Spindle Close, Foxwood.

Her crimes only ceased when a tip-off alerted benefit officials at City of York Council and the Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) to her crimes and they stopped her benefits.

Between August 2000 and November 2003 she received £24,491.24 in income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit she was not entitled to.

Sandford pleaded guilty to 12 charges of benefit fraud and was jailed for a year. Judge Trevor Kent Jones said: "I cannot allow what is, in effect, a just about £25,000 fraud on the country to go unmarked by a prison sentence."

Her barrister, Taryn Turner, pleaded unsuccessfully for her to keep her liberty saying her three young children would suffer, the family would have financial hardship and the money had gone on household expenses and their welfare, not on frivolous items. Recently Sandford had a small job working for Tesco.

Miss Maudsley said that Sandford started applying for housing benefit and council tax benefit in August 2000 as a single parent, although the couple had been accepted as foster parents in March 2000.

They had continued to live together when, in December 2000, she also started to claim income support, again on the grounds that she was a single parent. She also concealed a bank account, though it was so small it would not have affected her benefits.

Mr Wynn started working for City of York Council on December 4, 2000, and gave his address as Spindle Close and Sandford as his next of kin, living at the same address. The couple's younger child was born in September 2001.

In June 2003, after a tip-off, the authorities interviewed her about her frauds, and the council cut off her housing benefit and council tax benefit.

But she continued to claim income support fraudulently until she was charged with offences connected with it in November 2003 and the DWP cut it off. Both authorities are now reclaiming all the money. She has so far repaid about £200, but is not making regular repayments.

Mrs Turner said Sandford's solicitor had advised her not to pay the money while the case was ongoing. The couple had become foster parents for family, not financial reasons.

Max Thomas, the council's audit and fraud manager, said after the court hearing: "The council works closely with the DWP to identify and investigate fraud of the benefit system and this case shows that people who make false claims will be brought to justice."

Updated: 12:50 Tuesday, March 15, 2005