A BENEFITS cheat who claimed more than £100,000 has been jailed for 16 months.

Nicola Daly, 39, of Usk Road, Tilehurst, falsely claimed council tax, housing benefit and income support payments for almost nine years.

A judge heard that Daly told Reading Borough Council that she was raising her two children alone, when in fact she had lived with her partner for several years.

She was caught after her elderly mother-in-law applied for residential care and declared that she owned the house where her son Steven Randall and Daly both lived.

Daly was sentenced at Reading Crown Court on Friday, July 18, after admitting five charges of fraud and making false statements. She is repaying the £107,154.50 she claimed at a rate of £50 a month – meaning it will take 178 years to pay off.

Alison Ginn, prosecuting, said: “Between June 2004 and March 2013, Daly received benefits to which she was not entitled.

“She was representing that she was a single parent living with her children when in fact she lived with their father, Steven Randall.

“Mr Randall’s wages were being paid into this defendant’s bank account, the same one into which her benefits were paid.”

When interviewed by police in March last year, Daly said the father of her children was Mr Randall’s brother Darren.

She claimed to have never been in a relationship with Mr Randall and said his wages were only paid into her account as he had debt problems.

But she requested a second interview a month later and admitted she had lied.

Defending, Graham Bennett said that at the time of the initial false claim, Daly and her partner had struggled with drug addictions and she had just given birth to their first child.

He said: “The income support gave rise to council tax and housing benefit and the same false declarations were made. Regrettably, she did not correct matters and this continued throughout the years.”

He said Daly was now working part-time to repay her debt.

Judge Johannah Cutts said: “It is often the families of those who commit crimes who suffer the most.”