A WOMAN who faced jail for a £70,000 benefit fraud sobbed as her case was delayed - and earned sympathy from a judge.

Judge Michael Taylor told Middlesbrough single mother Dawn Bryan that the hold-up was "cruelty in excess".

The glitch occurred as prosecutors asked for more time to work out exactly how much the 41-year-old had cheated.

She had pleaded guilty last month to eight charges of making fraudulent claims when she appeared at Teesside Crown Court.

Judge Taylor warned Bryan then: “In view of the amount of money, a prison sentence is probable. Go and sort your affairs out.”

Today (Tuesday, December 9), she looked tearful and anxious as she waited to learn her fate - only to learn of the complication.

The judge told Bryan, of Mandale Road, Acklam: "You have been looking forward with dread to this day, I know that.

"I think it is cruelty in excess to ask you to come back next week, but I'm afraid it is unavoidable."

It was said that Bryan pocketed £71,000 for housing tax, jobseekers allowance and housing benefit between 2006 and 2012.

She admitted that she failed to declare that she had been living with a man and that she had made false declarations denying it.

She pleaded guilty to eight charges of failing to notify a change in her circumstances for Benefit between January 2006 and December 2012.

Her solicitor Rachel Dyson said that Bryan pleaded guilty on a basis that her partner moved out in January and not in December.

Prosecutor Rebecca Brown said the alteration would affect the amount illegally claimed, but she had exact total.

An investigator from the Department for Work and Pensions will provide a figure ahead of the case returning next Monday.