A Hampshire mother of two skimmed about £20,000 in tax credit by inflating her childcare costs.

Helen Leith, 37, initiated her claim through a telephone helpline with a declaration her childcare costs for the week amounted to £136.

The official recorded the information into the computer system and a tax figure for more than £4,700 was paid on that understanding for the year.

Following a further telephone call, the sum was updated to more than £10,000 for the second tax year and it had amounted to about £5,000 in the third when the scam was detected by a revenue officer making a routine cross check with childcare providers.

A Southampton Crown Court Leith, of Thornhill Road, Fawley, admitted three charges of obtaining a tax credit by deception and received an eight-month suspended sentence coupled with a 150-hour unpaid work order.

She was also ordered to disclose her assets for a confiscation hearing in July.