A BALLINGRY benefits cheat who fraudulently claimed £15,000 has been ordered to do unpaid work.

Bonnie Hart, 25, of Kirkland Avenue, received the cash over a four year period and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) are set to make her pay it back.

At Dunfermline Sheriff Court she admitted that between October 9, 2013, and May 30, 2017, at her home and elsewhere, she knowingly failed to give prompt notification to the DWP, of a change of circumstances which she knew affected her entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance.

She failed to declare her partner had started paid employment and, as a result, obtained £15,000 in benefits which she was not entitled to.

Solicitor Alexander Flett said Hart was in receipt of benefits because she was at college but gave it up due to health difficulties.

“The circumstances were somewhat confused,” he said. “Repayment will be started by the DWP. She tried to discuss it previously but was told she couldn’t at that stage. Without doubt, the DWP will seek repayment.”

Sheriff Linda Smith placed Hart on a community payback order requiring her to do 192 hours of unpaid work within nine months as an alternative to prison.

She told her: “This was a significant amount of money which was obtained by you by fraud over a lengthy period of four years and that sum of money, £15,000, is likely to be repaid one way or another and that will impose an element of hardship on you.”