Benefit cheat ordered to repay €31,000

A Co Antrim woman was today given a suspended jail sentence and ordered to repay £21,000 (€31,000) in fraudulently claimed British government benefits.

Agnes Ferguson (aged 36) of Albert Road, Carrickfergus, was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for three years, after being convicted of obtaining benefits to which she was not entitled.

Belfast Magistrates Court was told she was working while wrongly claiming Income Support and Housing Benefits totalling £21,115 (€31,200).

The offences occurred between August 2002 and February 2004.

Mrs Ferguson has to repay all the money she received to the Social Security Agency.

The British Department of Social Development said the conviction was the 159th secured by the SSA this year in its ongoing campaign against benefit fraud.