A WOMAN has been spared jail after making more than £5,000 from a benefit fraud scam that swept east Hull.
Mother-of-two Claire Mennell, 31, paid for 14 benefit cheques to be altered for higher amounts, making a profit of £5,189.56.
It was part of a scam that saw benefit claimants paying an unknown man to change the cheques they received, often increasing them by hundreds of pounds.
Presiding magistrate John McCorrigan said Mennell was lucky not to go prison.
He said: "I advise you never get into a mess like this again.
"You are lucky not to be going into custody today."
Mennell admitted fraud by false representation between September 2011 and February last year.
Prosecuting at Hull Magistrates' Court, Nicola Trory said: "This defendant had 14 cheques altered over several months. Some of the cheques were inflated by significant amounts.
"She told police her cousin was staying with her at the time and he was boasting he could get cheques altered.
"He took them away and brought them back after they had been cashed at the East Park Post Office, where others had similar cheques cashed." One Child Support Agency cheque was increased from £10 to £390.
Mennell's solicitor Gary Quantick said she used the money to buy food and clothes for her children.
He said: "She was in dire straits at the time but initially resisted having the cheques altered.
"Eventually, she agreed and, like anything of this nature, the first step is often the most difficult and thereafter it becomes easier.
"She foolishly found herself in a cycle she couldn't get out of."
Mennell was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work and pay £85 costs and an £80 victims' surcharge.
Humberside Police and the Department for Work and Pensions launched Operation Languish after noticing several manipulated cheques from the HU9 area.
