A HEAVILY pregnant mother-of-four who plundered more than £80,000 in benefits she wasn’t entitled to has walked free from court.

Samantha Smith, of Wayte Street, Moredon, lied to the authorities claiming she was a single mum when in reality she was living with a partner who was in work.

But the 28-year-old was put on a suspended sentence and told to observe a night time curfew for six months – though a judge ruled it should not be electronically monitored.

Adrian Maxwell, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court Smith fraudulently claimed income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit over an eight-year period.

In November 2001 he said she started her claim saying she was a single mum living alone, but by December the following year she was living with John Taggart.

He said the couple both signed a loan application giving her house in Beechcroft Road, Upper Stratton, as their home.

Over the following years he said they filled in a number of other similar forms again saying they were living at the same address.

Between 2005 and 2008 he said they had joint tenancy on the property, and when they left both gave the same forwarding address in Ruskin Avenue.

He said between late 2002 and November 2010 Smith received £82,627.10 of which £62,000 was income support, £16,000 housing benefit and £4,000 council tax benefit.

Smith pleaded guilty to four counts of dishonestly failing to notify a change in circumstance and two of dishonestly making a false representation.

Tony Bignall, defending, said his client was a bit vague about details but said she thought they started living together in 2006.

He said she had children aged ten, seven, five and two, and is due to give birth any day to her fifth.

She is also the main carer for her mother, who is housebound suffering from Crohn’s Disease, and for her youngest child, who suffers from fits.

Since the investigation he said she had been transferred to different benefits and was getting more than £15,000 a year.

But she is having to pay back £300 a month from her housing benefit towards the debt accrued from her fraudulent claim.

During a brief adjournment in the case Judge Euan Ambrose used an online benefits calculator to see what Smith could claim now.

He said he had used an average wage of about £14,000 for Mr Taggart to come up with his results, which almost exactly matched what she was now getting.

Passing sentence he said: “You are currently still living with Mr Taggart and currently receiving benefits about which no complaint is being made from the Department Of Work And Pensions.

“Current benefit is £204 a week tax credit and £387 a month housing benefit, meaning the amount you are receiving is £15,256.

“If you had been receiving that level of benefits between 2002 and 2010 instead of receiving £82,000, as you did, your benefit claim would have been over £120,000.

“Now that is a very rough and ready calculation, as you didn’t have four children during that period. But the point is illustrative of how you were entitled to benefits, but not the ones you claimed and not on the basis on which you claimed them.”

He imposed a six-month jail term suspended for two years with a 9pm to 6am curfew for six months, but said Smith would not be tagged as it could cause havoc when she goes to hospital to give birth.