A BENEFIT cheat is today beginning a six-month prison sentence for fiddling £33,000.

Mother-of-two Amanda West let the Benefits Agency think she was an out-of- work single mum when in fact she was living with her husband and working as a nurse.

The 32-year-old, of Privett Road, Fareham, claimed £18,585 income support and £14,461 housing benefit between 1996 and 2000.

She was only caught after an anonymous tip-off led fraud investigators to her door, Portsmouth Crown Court was told.

Judge Roger Shawcross said he would have sentenced West more severely if it wasn't for her children, one of whom is disabled. Half of her sentence is suspended.

West admitted three charges of theft and has agreed to start paying back the money at £30 a month.

Helen Fields, mitigating, said the family had not used the stolen money to go on a spending spree or fund a lavish lifestyle.