THE York pensioner who was controversially jailed for 12 months for a benefit fraud has been inundated with letters of support.

Charlotte McCulloch, 61, of Hob Moor Terrace, off Tadcaster Road, was imprisoned in March for fraudulently claiming £38,000 in income support while working.

The sentence was imposed at York Crown Court in spite of pleas by her barrister for it to be suspended on medical and other grounds, and in spite of her charitable work in raising thousands of pounds for St Leonard's Hospice in York. The offences had no connection to her charitable work.

McCulloch was so overcome by her sentence that she could not at first descend the dock steps to the cells.

Readers subsequently wrote to the Evening Press to criticise the sentence, saying she was being punished for a first offence when career criminals and violent thugs were regularly walking free.

People said the sentence should have been suspended and she should have had the chance to put the mistake right by paying back the money.

Now the prisoner has written to the Evening Press from the hospital wing at a jail in County Durham, and revealed that support has been pouring in for her.

"I have now had over 90 cards and letters of support in just over two weeks," she writes.

She added that family and friends were taking it in turns to visit her, as she was only allowed one visit a week.

Updated: 10:33 Thursday, April 24, 2003