A BENEFITS cheat hid her £50,000 savings from the authorities and continued to pocket money to which she was not entitled – on the advice of friends.

Joanne Linsley claimed £20,794 in Employment Support Allowance as she searched for a job, then Jobseekers Allowance when she was deemed unfit to work.

The 50-year-old declared one bank account to officials, but kept secret the one which contained her inheritance, Teesside Crown Court was told yesterday.

Prosecutor Jonathan Harley said Linsley immediately confessed when she was confronted, and admitted she knew what she was doing was against the law.

Mr Harley told the court that she is now paying back the sum – falsely claimed between June 2014 and October last year – at a rate of £102 a month.

Shaking in the dock, Linsley was told by Judge Deborah Sherwin: “Can I make it clear you’re not going to prison today because I can see you’re frightened.

“I am sure you committed this offence because you listened to your friends’ about what would happen to the money you got from your parents’ will.

“If you stay out of trouble for the next 18 months, you will not have to go to prison.

“You have managed to get to 50 without causing any trouble, so I can’t think for one moment that you will commit any further offences.”

Linsley, of Twizziegill View, Easington, near Saltburn, was given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, after she pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to disclose information.

In discussion with Linsley’s lawyer, Rachel Dyson, Judge Sherwin said she had been “somewhat beguiled by advice from friends that this was a good thing to do and it is now something she bitterly regrets”.

The judge said: “I don’t see the public interest in this lady going to prison.”