A single mum from Thornton Heath has begun a six-month prison sentence for claiming nearly £24,000 in benefits while working as a classroom assistant.
Tracey Gladwin, a 40-year-old mother-of-three from Earlswood Avenue, failed to declare she was working while claiming income support for nearly 10 years before the con was discovered.
The law finally caught up with her last June when the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) received a tip-off about her fraudulent claims and she was sentenced to six months imprisonment for benefit fraud-related offences at Croydon Magistrates' Court last Wednesday.
Gladwin, who was charged under the Social Security Administration Act of 1992, had claimed the equivalent of around £2,400 a year between August 1993 and June 2003 but had worked as a classroom assistant since November 1993.
A DWP spokesman said: "Benefit fraud is a huge problem and action will be taken against those who commit it.
"This woman was sentenced to six months but she will probably only serve three."
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