A JUDGE showed mercy on a woman who falsely claimed £26,000 in benefits over an eight years while working.

Recorder Richard Brittain told Sylvia Thompson that normally such a serious offence would merit a short prison sentence. But he said he had decided not to send her to jail because her disabled husband needed her at home and she is paying back the debt every month.

Thompson, aged 55, of Shaw Street, Bury, was given a Community Service Order for 200 hours and ordered to pay £250 court costs.

She appeared at Bolton Crown Court for sentence on six specimen charges of obtaining property by deception and asked for 370 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Prosecuting on behalf of the DSS Rachel Smith said Thompson had been claiming invalidity and incapacity benefit for herself between 1991 and 1999 to a total of £26,087,99.

The offence came to light when the DSS surveyed WH Tracy in Bury where Thompson had been working. A check with DSS records revealed Thompson's name.

She was interviewed twice and admitted she had been claiming benefit payable to those who can't work while she had been working at the company in Paradise Mill.

Andrew Marrs, defending, said Thompson, a woman of previous good character, had originally made a legitimate claim at her previous address in Durham.

When she moved to Bury she continued with the claim but then later took a temporary job at WH Tracy after her daughter told her they needed staff. The job later was made permanent.

Recorder Richard Brittain told Thompson: "I have shown mercy in this case because your husband needs you and because the DSS will recoup some of the money over the next few years."