A York woman who claimed more than £2,000 in benefits that she was not entitled to appeared before city magistrates yesterday (1 March).

Deborah Archer (40) of Tedder Road had been claiming housing and council tax benefit on the basis that she was a single parent with a low income from her part-time work, child benefit and child tax credits.

The council was notified by the Housing Benefit Matching Service that Ms Archer was in receipt of working tax credits. This information was not known to the council when it had calculated her benefit entitlement.

During the subsequent investigation, it was discovered that Ms Archer had failed to inform the council that she had been awarded tax credits.

As a result of this, Ms Archer's claim for housing and council tax benefit was recalculated to take into account her true income. This showed that, between October 2005 and July 2006, she had been overpaid £1,597.93 in housing benefit and £505.18 in council tax benefit.

Ms Archer admitted falsely obtaining benefits and received a one year Conditional Discharge and was ordered to pay £300 in compensation.

Max Thomas, the council's audit and fraud manager, said: "The council is committed to ensuring that everyone who is entitled to benefits receives them. However, we will take action against anyone found to have deliberately withheld information relevant to their claim.

"We would urge anyone with information about suspected benefit fraud to contact the council's benefit fraud hotline on 01904 552935. You don't have to leave your name and all calls are treated with the strictest confidence. Alternatively, you can email benefit.fraud@york.gov.uk"