A WOMAN has been ordered to do 100 hours of community service after claiming income support and housing benefit while she was working.

Nicola Jane Foulkes, of Prince of Wales Court, Buckley was overpaid by £2,460 because she failed to tell the authorities about her job in a care home, Mold Magistrates Court was told.

Tim Dillon, prosecuting, said Foulkes continued to claim income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit despite being in paid work.

When interviewed under caution, Foulkes claimed she had sent two letters to Flintshire Council advising them of her job, but they were never received and she was unable to provide evidence of them. The court heard Foulkes, who had no legal representation in court, had been prosecuted for the same offence in October 2005.

She said she accepted what had been put forward by the prosecution, was now in full-time permanent employment and preparing to complete and NVQ in social care.

Magistrates sentenced Foulkes to a 12-month community order, under which she must carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and ordered her to pay £337.81 court costs.