A benefits cheat who held down a string of jobs while claiming £14,864 from the public purse has been spared a jail term.

Nontando Ndlovu, of Luke Road, Little Horton, Bradford, was instead ordered to carry out 150 hours' community service by Bradford magistrates yesterday.

The 30-year-old, who was granted asylum in Britain after fleeing Zimbabwe in 2002, admitted four counts of making dishonest benefit claims at an earlier hearing.

The court heard how Ndlovu was employed by five different companies as a nursing assistant or carer during a two-year period in which she claimed £10,500 income support, £3,500 housing benefit and about £900 in council tax benefit.

Paul Milner, prosecuting for the Department of Work and Pensions, said an aggravating feature was the fact that Ndlovu was working when she made her first claim, so it was a "fraud from its inception".

Throughout 2003 and 2004 - the period of the fraud - Ndlovu worked at Lady Park Nursing Home, in Bingley, for Willow Oak Development Limited, Southern Cross Health Care, Cygnet Hospital in Wyke, and for Saint John of God Care Services.

At Southern Cross, she earned up to £1,310 a month, while at Saint John of God, she could make up to £1,551 a month, according to Mr Milner.

In mitigation, Steven Kaye pointed out that Ndlovu's income fluctuated and was very unreliable.

He said: "She obtained work on a part-time and piecemeal basis through agencies. Sometimes she would work a few hours a month, sometimes more, but she had no income she could rely on to support her four-year-old son."

Mr Kaye said Ndlovu, of previous good character, fully accepted she claimed benefits to which she was not entitled over a long period of time and had pleaded guilty to doing so at the earliest opportunity.

He said Ndlovu, who did not use the money to lead an extravagant lifestyle, had been through a hard time, fleeing Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean regime in 2002 and being granted indefinite leave to stay in the UK.

The court heard that she had offered to repay the money at a rate of £150 a month. The magistrates told Ndlovu she was lucky not to have been jailed, before imposing a 150-hour community punishment rehabilitation order, with instructions to pay £75 court costs within 14 days.

The case had been adjourned earlier in the year for the preparation of a pre-sentence report, which examined all options, including jail. The prosecution, made under the Social Security Administration Act 2002, came about after a joint operation between the Department of Work and Pensions and Bradford Council.

e-mail: will.kilner @bradford.newsquest.co.uk