A WOMAN who pretended she had three disabled babies to fraudulently claim £60,000-worth of benefits was jailed for 12 months yesterday in the largest case of its kind in the North-East.

The 38-year-old mother-of-three admitted stealing from the Inland Revenue. As she was led away from Durham Crown Court, her family shouted: "You can't take her away from us."

Paula Metcalfe, of Beech Grove, Ushaw Moor near Durham, pleaded guilty to five charges of false accounting, ten of deception and one of attempted deception.

Emma Piasecki, prosecuting, told Judge Michael Taylor that from July 2001 until April 2003 Metcalfe had made ten false written and telephone claims, which had fraudulently secured her cash under the then Working Families Tax Credit.

From April 2003 until June last year, under the new Tax Credit system, Metcalfe admitted five charges of false accounting, including one claim in which she said she had given birth to a boy who was disabled.

She later made a further Tax Credit claim stating she had had twins, both of whom were disabled.

She had also made false claims for two of her children and had lied to the Revenue, stating she lived alone when she was in fact sharing her home with her then partner.

Sam Faulks, mitigating, said that although Metcalfe had been living with someone at the time, he had been dependent upon her.

He said Metcalfe had been left feeling unable to cope after she was "abused financially, emotionally and physically and that led her to abuse the system".

He said she did have a child with a disability and pleaded for her liberty for the sake of her family.

But Judge Taylor said the case had been aggravated by the fact that, with the case hanging over her, she had made a further fraudulent claim.

Jailing Metcalfe for a year, Judge Taylor told her that the tax credit system depended on honesty.