A MOTHER-of-three who dishonestly obtained state benefits of £60,000 has been jailed for 12 months today.

Members of Patricia Highton's close family wept as the 44-year-old was led to the cells at Liverpool Crown Court.

She had denied six fraud offences and was convicted of three of them after a trial and was cleared of the other three.

Jailing Highton, of Stanley Court, Birkenhead, Judge Andrew Hatton said that the jury had acquitted her of those offences because they found that her husband was not living with her at the time.

But they had been satisfied that she had then continued to claim benefits after he had returned to the matrimonial home and he was working.

The court heard that their third child was born in January 2005 so it was clear that the couple had resumed their relationship by May the previous year and from then until October 2011 she had received benefits totalling more than £90,000.

He said that she would have been entitled to notional tax credits of in excess of £30,000 bringing the total overpayment to £60,000 spanning seven years.

Judge Hatton said he accepted she had experienced difficulties in her life but so did other people and they did not resort to taking money to which they were not entitled.

about time this happened to someone, at least us hard working familys can hold our heads up high, there sould be more sent down and told to pay it back

these people know they are doing wrong so why all the tears

Isn't it about time the government got this tough on all the immigrants milking the benefit system

I think it's become an industry lemonhead. What this woman did must only be the tip of the iceberg. I dread to think how much is being stolen out of the system by foreign criminal gangs who are based here and living in all our major towns and cities, with all their aliases and bogus addresses. Maybe that's why the government capped the amount of benefits that people can receive...at least ensuring that only a fixed sum can be stolen by the dishonest claimants. But that won't stop the determined ones. And don't get me started on MP's expenses.

When my mother was bringing her family of 5 kids up back in the fifties, our dad was constantly off ill from his job as a docker with stomach troubles. He got no pay at all and really had nobody to turn to for financial support because in those days if you didn't go into the "pen" you got no pay.

I can't remember if my mum was in receipt of any sickness benefits from the State, but she did get a bit of family allowance. She wouldn't have dreamed of going anywhere near the social security department in Price Street for help, so us kids went without even the basics during those periods when our dad was ill.

Going to the social security was only one step away from the workhouse was her philosophy. National assistance was beneath her dignity, and there must have been thousands like her. Even free school meals weren't applied for, instead my brother and I each did a newspaper round and the shilling a day we received for that paid for our school lunches. I kid you not that's absolutely true. If we hadn't delivered the Echo to the masses we wouldn't have ate.

When Mrs Mac, the dinner lady of St Hughs (the Yozzers) used to shout seconds me and our kid used to dive across the other kids to get anything that was going. At least we got our monies worth. LOL!

Dead right there Alonso.My parents had 6 of us and dad worked at the bakery in price street.We had plenty of cakes but never any money.Never remember mam asking anyone for anything.

High time this happened! My hubby was one of 9 and his father, right up until he passed away 4 years ago never took a penny from the state! Even in his later years after retirement when poor health had taken a grip on him, he still paid for his own dental care, glasses etc and was insulted that Social Services advised him to claim state money when he had a private pension x

I remember the Co-op bakery (horse and cart) man stopping in the the street. Mum used to spend a few coppers on cream buns if she had any money in her purse. That was in the fifties. My dad reckoned we were kept going on Quaker Oats and Wonderloaf... oh and Echo margarine to spread on the bread. He said that they used that stuff to grease the couplings to link up the lairage wagons taking the cows and sheep for slaughter. It was the cheapest margarine. Nobody worried about bloody cholesterol levels back then. Be a few more people alive if they had though.

They only whinge, have emotional problems, or "illness" when they get caught. Just like the other thread where she narrowly avoided jail because she was "sick". Well they make me sick and I think that they make every other honest person sick too. Until they get caught, they are all laughing their socks off.

When my grandad was a kid, he lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. He used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when he got home 'is Dad would thrash 'im to sleep wi' his belt.

He was lucky to have a paper bag,we lived in a hole in the ground,went to bed before we got up,but on a lighter note,dad used to drive that horse and cart with the cakes on.

Excellent result , im sick of hearing about these people on the fiddle, everyone is finding it difficult to make ends meet, but we do anything we can to get by without screwing the system and the taxpayer

I take it all that have responded are on the system.

A lot of negative comments here.

Is this the same system Capt 'merica used to welcome people to?

I was a Co-op breadman for a while from Price Street, but I was lucky, they gave me a van! But it was interesting chatting with a couple of the old boys listening to their stories of horses & carts.

It's not being on the system that's cause for concern, it's the blatant abuse of it that is. For what it's worth, I must be one of the lucky ones and have never had to ask for financial assistance for either myself or any member of my family in my life. Nor have any of my three surviving siblings who have all been successful and like me made it on a basic secondary modern education. I put theirs and my success down to a strong work ethic which our mother instilled into us all, oh and she taught us the value of money from a very early age. It's amazing how far the butter will spread on a slice of bread when you neither smoke, drink or gamble.

Be careful your Halo doesn't strangle you Alonso.

Oh I forgot to add; it was also instilled in me to live within my means. And that's not being sarcastic just being realisitic.

Good riddance i hope now the kids can be brought up rather than dragged.

Is this a statement saying all people on benefits are dragging there kids up I think that's a bit harsh