A GRANDMOTHER could face losing her home for a second time after being caught fiddling her benefits.

Carol Blackburn pocketed more than £20,000 she was not entitled to during a seven-year swindle.

Yesterday, the 61-year-old was given an exceptional sentence by a judge moved by her tale of hardship.

But a Proceeds of Crime Act application could result in her having her assets – including her home – confiscated.

Teesside Crown Court heard that the ailing mother-of-three began claiming benefits after her husband died, when she was 42, in the early Nineties.

She failed to tell benefits staff that she had later met another man and began living with him in 2001.

Blackburn lost her home after struggling to bring up her children following her husband’s death, the court heard.

Her lawyer, Rachel Dyson, said the home she now shares with her second husband is also at risk.

A confiscation hearing for the Proceeds of Crime Act application will be held towards the end of next month.

If the court decides Blackburn has realisable assets which meet her benefit from crime, they could be seized.

Yesterday, Recorder Michael Slater imposed a conditional discharge, which he said was wholly exceptional.

He told Blackburn, from Marton, Middlesbrough, that a prison sentence would be unfair and disproportionate.

He said: “You are of previous good character and someone less likely to appear before a crown court I have yet to see.”

Blackburn, of Larkspur Road, admitted obtaining a money transfer by deception at an earlier hearing.

Miss Dyson told the judge: “It is clear she is remorseful for her actions. She regrets what she has done.

“Mrs Blackburn has had a horrific experience, starting with the interview, and that has hung over her for some time.”

The court heard that the fraud investigation began when Blackburn told officials she had remarried in 2008.

During the interview, she initially denied claiming benefits while living with her thenpartner, but later confessed.

Investigators produced paperwork, such as a mortgage application in joint names, to prove their case.

The court heard that Mr Blackburn has since been diagnosed with cancer and both she and her husband are suffering poor health.