A woman has been found guilty of wrongly claiming more than £35,000 in benefits.

Denise Moore, 40, of Percival Road, in Enfield, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and ordered to undertake 80 hours of unpaid work for claiming more than £37,000 in housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support between 2010 and 2012.

More initially claimed housing benefit and council tax benefit as a lone parent in November 1999.

However, it emerged that she had been working by setting up a cleaning company called Innovation Cleaning Services and had been working as a delivery driver, earning more than £4,000 per month.

Councillor Andrew Stafford, cabinet member for finance said: “I am pleased to see that yet another fraudster has been brought to book.

"The hardworking honest people of Enfield who still pay their taxes every day of the year, will rejoice that a person literally stealing from the sweat of their labour has been caught and prosecuted. I think most people would have wished the sentence to be harsher.

“Denise Moore claimed £37,000 worth of benefits, intended for those most in need, yet at one point was receiving more than £4,000 in wages per month.

“Investigators also revealed she was in receipt of other extremely large payments some of over £40,000, clearly not a person in any need of benefit assistance.

“People who fraudulently claim benefits are greedy, and take money from the taxpayer. Every time another person is caught and shamed it is more money saved for the public purse.”

Moore pleaded guilty to four charges of failing to promptly notify the council of changes in her circumstances at an earlier hearing.

She was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on June 23.