A WOMAN has received a suspended prison sentence and a curfew order for benefit fraud amounting to more than £74,000.

Katherine Hutchings, aged 46, of Royton Avenue, in Sale, obtained income support, carer’s allowance and housing and council tax benefit amounting to £ 74,273.

Hutchings pleaded guilty last Friday (March 23) to failing to report changes in her circumstances to the Department for Work and Pensions and Trafford Council’s benefits department after starting paid employment as a carer in a home.

She was sentenced at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court to four months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and a three-month curfew order.

She is also required to repay all the money that she falsely claimed.