A woman who had claimed to be living off food banks without revealing she had secretly inherited more than £100,000, has been spared jail after admitting benefit fraud.

When breadwinner Paul Harrison died in January 2013, his daughter Sasha and his partner, Louise Stack, from Chesham, were left in financial difficulties and had to sign on for benefits, a court heard.

A prosecutor said 31-year-old Ms Harrison and her 54-year-old mother had been legitimately in need of financial help when Mr Harrison died - until they started to receive the fruits of his estate in payments which reached up to £109,000.

Despite having money to spare, the two continued to take money from the Department of Work and Pensions, with Ms Harrison claiming just under £20,000 in one-and-a-half years and her mother claiming £26,345 in a three-and-a-half year period.

The prosecutor said: "In September 2016, Ms Harrison made contact with the DWP, saying she was going to go self-employed and had a few hours work as a cleaner.

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"She had made reference to the fact that she was living off food banks, when in-fact this was a time when she was a co-signatory to a bank account with in excess of £106,000 in it.

"The joint bank account, over the subsequent years, became greatly exploited as both defendants, one of them used the expression 'dipped into it'. By the time they were interviewed in March 2018 there was £58,000 rather than £106,000 and that since then that has all gone."

Both defendants had admitted two counts of dishonestly failing to notify a change of circumstances affecting entitlement to a social security or benefit payment.

Harrison and Stack appeared at Aylesbury Crown Court wearing face masks, with the daughter asked to stand in the jury box and and the mother ordered to stand in the dock to obey social distancing rules.

The court heard in mitigation how they had not used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle but had just bought an affordable car.

Judge Thomas Rochford, sentencing, said: "It seems to be a case of money being used to make a modest lifestyle a little bit more comfortable. You are both, before this, respectable women, you both have children dependent on you.

"The circumstances in which those claims became fraudulent arose out of the tragic death of your partner or father, claims which had previously been made perfectly honestly and properly became dishonest.

"You chose not to reveal to the authorities, which you should have, that you came into a substantial sum of money. The fact of the matter is that benefits are paid for those who really need benefits and under strict rules and regulations. Those rules are laid down and you decided that you would take this money that you were not entitled to."

Judge Rochford jailed Stack, of Pheasant Rise, for 24 weeks, but suspended the sentence for 12 months, ordering her to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work. Harrison, of Brockhurst Road, was jailed for 20 weeks, also suspended for 12 months and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.

The judge added: "You will still have to repay this money. Prepare yourselves for that."