A 71-year-old woman has appeared before court for a six-year benefit fraud that netted her £19,000 in taxpayers' money she was not entitled to.

Carol Jackson’s claim for housing and council tax benefit was initially honest and remained so for six years, said Kevin Blount, prosecuting for City of York Council.

But from August 2008, she failed to tell benefit officers she was working part time as a cleaner and the claim then became dishonest.

Jackson, of Middleham Avenue, York, pleaded guilty to three charges of benefit fraud involving housing benefit, council tax benefit and its replacement, council tax relief.

She was put under a 12-week curfew every night between 6pm and 6am and ordered to pay £40 prosecution costs and a £60 statutory surcharge.

York magistrates heard she is voluntarily repaying the money at £125 a month and her only income is a pension.

Duty solicitor Akef Akbar said: “She is very remorseful and she does fully regret her actions.”

The court heard Jackson had been retired until 2008 when her brother died and she couldn’t pay for his funeral so she took the cleaning job for 16 hours a week. She found the benefit claim paperwork extremely confusing and failed to tell the council that she was working again.

Mr Blount said between April 2009 and March 2015 she claimed £14,454 of housing benefit she was not entitled to, between April 2009 and March 2013 she claimed £3,015 in council tax benefit she was not entitled to, and between April 2013 and March 2015, she claimed £1,533 in council tax relief to which she was not entitled.

Mr Akbar said that although Jackson had relatives, they had stopped contacting her after they no longer needed her to baby-sit their children and she felt they regarded her as a burden on the family.

She was struggling financially and had health problems.