A 51-year-old taxi driver who received more than £10,000 benefits she was not entitled to has escaped an immediate jail sentence.

Rhonda Cullen-Keates had been claiming income support and housing benefit since 1990 because of a back problem.

She started working as a taxi driver for Jack’s cars in Deal in 2004 but worked too many hours.

Annette Calder, prosecuting, said Cullin-Keates should have told the DWP and Dover District Council of the change in her circumstances.

As a result the mother-of-one, of Trinity Place, Deal, received £10,500 in benefits she was not entitled to, the court heard.

She pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court to two charges of failing to promptly declare her change in circumstances and was given a nine-month jail sentence, suspended for two years.

Diana Heer, defending, said Cullen-Keates did not set out to commit fraud.

She said Cullen-Keates’s daughter had suffered a traumatic attack when she was five years old, which resulted in an increase demand on resources.

“That led to her needing more money and that resulted in her having to do more work. But she accepts that she should have informed the local authorities.”

Judge Nigel van der Bijl told her that she had not been cheating the Government but every taxpayer.