A CARE home helper fiddled the State out of £2,463 in benefits by claiming she was an unemployed single parent, a court was told.

Lilian Nuttall, a 39-year-old mother-of-two who had lived in Bury, had fraudulently obtained benefits over a period of months in 1999 and 2000, Rochdale magistrates were told.

However after hearing that Nuttall's estranged husband had sold off the couple's furniture to fund his heroin habit, and the fact that the over-payment was being recovered by the Department of Social Security through the benefits system, the bench decided to give Nuttall a conditional discharge for 12 months with reduced costs of £50 to pay.

She had admitted three charges of obtaining benefits by deception, and had asked for 22 further similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Nuttall had moved from Bury and was now living with her son and daughter in Henry Street, Rochdale, although she said she was still working at the care home and was slowly repaying her debts.