A mother-of-three who cheated the state out of more than £45,000 in benefits has been spared jail, even though she was on probation for similar offences at the time.

Bradford Crown Court heard that between April 1998 and November 2005 Donna Delph claimed Income Support without declaring that she was working as a cleaner.

As a result, she was paid a total of £45,052 to which she was not entitled.

Delph, 45, of Springwell Drive, West Bowling, Bradford, pleaded guilty to falsely claiming benefit and asked for 221 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

She was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work for the community.

Paul Milner, prosecuting, said that in 1998 Delph was put on probation for similar matters and she committed the latest offences while still under that order.

She began claiming Income Support for herself and three children in February that year, stating that she was a single parent and not working.

Information later came to hand that she had begun working as a cleaner, initially for between 20 and 30 hours a fortnight but later on a full-time basis earning £64 to £278 a fortnight.

The Department for Work and Pensions had calculated there was a total of 348 weeks when she claimed money to which she was not entitled.

Jeremy Hill-Baker, mitigating, said that although there were aggravating features in the case, Delph had not been living a lavish lifestyle.

She was a poorly-paid cleaner and had been saddled with debts.

'Sadly, she made the wrong choices,'' said Mr Hill-Baker. She had been repaying the money at the rate of £40 a month since November last year.

Passing sentence, Judge James Spencer QC told Delph: 'You have previous convictions for defrauding the state. It is quite a scandalous state of affairs.''