A CARER who cheated the taxpayer out of £35,000 has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Department for Work and Pensions investigators carried out two months of surveillance on Lizanne McDonnell’s home.

She had claimed she was a single parent and was claiming benefits, but the investigators proved she was living with her partner, Paul Sharples, who is the father of her sons.

At Bolton Crown Court, Robert Dudley, prosecuting on behalf of the DWP, told how Mr Sharples had been living with McDonnell for at least five years from 2010 and during that time she had failed to notify the authorities, so she received thousands of pounds to which she was not entitled.

The surveillance was carried out in July and August, 2014 and when McDonnell, of Mossfield Road, Kearsley, was arrested in February, 2015 investigators found Mr Sharples’ clothes in the wardrobe and his personal possessions at the property.

Attempts to claim he had been living in a caravan nearby were dismissed when a visit to the mobile home revealed no clothing was there and it did not even contain a bed.

McDonnell pleaded guilty to five counts of benefit fraud.

Mark Friend, defending, said that since January McDonnell has been working 40-hour weeks as a carer for the elderly as well as looking after her children, one of whom has health problems.

The court heard that the fraudulently-taken money had not been used to fund a lavish lifestyle, but was spent on her children.

McDonnell wept as Judge Richard Gioserano told her her crime justified a prison sentence. “You have had, over the years, about £35,000 of taxpayers’ money to which you were not entitled. That, of course, is a serious matter,” he said.

McDonnell was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years and will be subject to supervision by the probation service for six months. She must also undertake 200 hours unpaid work.

Civil action will be taken to recover the cash from her.