Mum is spared a prison sentence
Plymouth magistrates imposed a four-month prison sentence on 39-year-old Mandie Ward, but suspended the term for two years.
Ward, of Cornwall Street, claimed income support and other benefits for more than four years, stating on official forms that she was a single, unemployed mother of three.
She denied three charges of failing to promptly notify the Department for Work and Pensions of a change in circumstances affecting her entitlement to benefit, namely that her partner, who worked, was living with her between February 2003 and August 2007.
Ward also denied one charge of making a false statement to obtain benefit in October 2006.
However, Plymouth magistrates found her guilty on all counts after a trial, ruling that in fact she was living with her partner, care assistant Edward Whitehead.
The benefit fraud involved £32,797.38, mostly in the form of income support.
Presiding magistrate Jane Schlemmer said: "We are satisfied that the offences are so serious that custody is appropriate because of the length of time and the amount of money involved, but we are not sending you to prison today."
She was also ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work within the next year and to pay £150 towards the prosecution costs.
Magistrates did not order her to pay any compensation, but John Major, for the Department for Work and Pensions, said that specialist officers from the department would try to recover the money.
Ward is now working full-time and not claiming benefit.
John Haythorne, for Ward, told the court she was under the 'misapprehension' that her partner could not be legally classed as living with her.
Giving evidence, Ward told the trial Mr Whitehead did not live with her in Cornwall Street, nor at her previous home in Ordnance Street, but admitted that he stayed with her 'three or four times a week'.
She said he did not contribute to household bills, but did give some money to her children.
The court heard that Mr Whitehead left most of his belongings at Ward's home.
Ward told the court that at the time of the benefit fraud her relationship with Mr Whitehead was 'volatile'.
She admitted that since May 2007 they had been living together all the time.
GUILTY: Mandie Ward's jail sentence was suspended
