A BENEFITS cheat who had almost £40,000 stashed away in the bank has been ordered to pay back £33,000 - or face nine months behind bars.

Widowed mother-of-four Gulzar Akhtar, 54, whose lies cost the council tax payers of Pendle more than £22,000 in a six year scam, had claimed handouts alleging she had no money.

She had had £37,688 in bank accounts in her name which was later withdrawn in cash.

Akhtar was recently spared jail at Burnley Crown Court but the Department for Work and Pensions started a fight to get the £33,000 back.

On Monday, Judge Beverley Lunt found Akhtar had benefited to the tune of £33,621.20 from offending and that the realisable amount was £37,688.

She made a confiscation order for £33,621.20 at a Proceeds of Crime Hearing and said if it was not paid within six months, Akhtar would to go to jail.

The court had earlier heard how Akhtar claimed the money in the accounts was her children's but the judge said there was no evidence to support Akhtar's contention the money was not for her.

Judge Lunt said Akhtar had never explained why the money went into accounts in her name and why she could not open accounts in the name of her children.

She added: "I am wholly satisfied the defendant has not been truthful, either in interviews with the Department for Works and Pensions or in her evidence before me about this money."

Judge Lunt said Akhtar had not satisfied her the money was not hers, that she did not know where it was and had no access to it.

Frances Hertzog, for the DWP, had told the first part of the Proceeds of Crime Hearing that Akhtar had hidden assets and after she had been invited by the department for interview over the allegations, the accounts were all closed, the money had been withdrawn in cash and could not be traced.

The court had been told Akhtar claimed the money was for her daughter's wedding in Pakistan but the daughter had still not been married even though the money was withdrawn. Akhtar then claimed she gave her daughter the money for a deposit on a flat, although she had stated the cash was for all her children and there was no documentary evidence to show the £37,000 had been used as a deposit.

Akhtar , of Southfield Square, Nelson, had earlier admitted one count of dishonestly failing to promptly notify a change in circumstances and eight allegations of false accounting. She had been given 36 weeks in prison, suspended for a year, with supervision.

The court had earlier heard how Akhtar claimed income support from 1990. The department could not say her claim was false from the start.

Akhtar was overpaid £6,328 in income support over three years, £5,434 in jobseekers' allowance over two years and £17,686 in housing benefits and £4,171 in council tax benefits over six years .