A MOTHER-of-three admitted claiming more than £18,000 in benefits she was not entitled too after being reunited with her husband.

Caroline Smart, 36, of Turker Close, Northallerton, was ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work. She was also ordered to pay £85 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

Smart claimed housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support and job seekers' allowance after she split up from her husband in February 2012, but, when they were later reconciled, Northallerton magistrates were told she failed to inform Hambleton District Council and the Department for Work and Pensions.

In September 2013, however, investigators found her husband had been living with her after finding evidence of him paying insurance and a TV licence at the house. A Barclaycard was also found there.

David Dedham, defending, said it was not a question of Smart living the high life, she was a lady of impeccable character who had worked all her life. But after the couple split up she had got used to the rent being paid.

He said it was a case of her having to say she didn’t want any more money, but she didn’t.

“It is perhaps not right, but it is understandable,” he told the court.