A WOMAN who worked as a cleaner while cheating more than £30,000 in disability benefit has been spared a jail term.

Christine Whittle Morley, 47, from Cleveland Street, Peasley Cross, was instead sentenced to a 12-month community order with 80 hours unpaid work when she appeared before Liverpool Crown Court today.

She will also be electronically tagged and given a curfew for the next two months which means she must be at her home address between 7pm and 7am.

Prosecutors for Department for Work and Pensions said that in the 90s Whittle Morley began claiming disability allowance at the higher rate.

She declared she was in severe pain and it took her between 15 and 30 minutes to walk a very short distance.

Whittle Morley also claimed to need round-the-clock personal care and that she used a walking aid at all times.

However, the court was told that for more than six years she had worked for two cleaning companies.

During her term of employment Whittle Morley did not tell the DWP her circumstances had changed, and carried on claiming the benefit illegally.

The tasks would involve her walking between half a mile and a mile each day, the court was told.

And working as a cleaning team leader, she would cover more than 40 sites across the North West.

But benefit fraud investigators caught her out, recording surveillance footage of her working in a St Helens shopping centre as part of their probe.

In mitigation, barrister Steven Swift said the defendant did have a letter dating back to the time of her initial claim which stated that “she would be on benefit for life”.

However, Mr Swift admitted that later “she had not informed the agencies” when she became able to work.

He added that the defendant had come to court knowing she may face a prison term: “It is clear this whole process has taken quite a toll on the woman and she is extremely concerned not for herself but for her daughter.”

Sentencing, Judge Lyon said he “accepted that this was an offence not fraudulent from the outset” and that he was taking into account a guilty plea had been entered at the earliest opportunity.

He warned Whittle Morley that a breach of the community order or curfew could see her face a custodial sentence.