A YOUNG single mum who cheated the DSS out of more than £25,000 was jailed for six months.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Beverley Hughes had begun claiming benefit legitimately but then got a job as a care assistant.

She was warned by DSS officers not to work and claim benefit but continued to work until her child was born.

She then began working as an office assistant, said Miss Teresa Loftus, prosecuting.

When she was interviewed by DSS officials last year she admitted illegally claiming benefit.

Hughes, aged 30, who stood in the dock sobbing and holding a picture of her 21-month-old daughter, pleaded guilty to three offences of obtaining property, including failing to declare receiving maternity payments, and one of false accounting.

She also had 184 similar offences taken into consideration.

Defencer barrister David Watson said that Hughes, who has no previous convictions, had been subjected to domestic violence by her partner who had left her with an £8,000 debt for a car.

Hughes, of Windsor Mew, New Ferry, is now running her own nursing agency earning £12,000 a year and would be able to repay the cash in installments.

Jailing her, Judge Ian Crompton said that people who engage in fraud commit a crime that must be dealt with seriously "and a message has to be sent out."

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