A grandmother who fraudulently claimed housing and council tax benefits while she had more than £35,000 in savings has walked free from court.

Angela Forde, 58, started applying for financial support in 2005 but failed to tell Richmond Council when she made £136,909 from the sale of her house, in Ham Close, Richmond, the following year.

She was able to claim nearly £23,000 for housing and more than £5,000 in council tax benefits over five years by keeping her five Santander accounts a secret from the authority.

But Forde, of Roy Grove, Hampton, escaped with a conditional discharge when she was sentenced at Richmond Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, March 6.

She had earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of falsely furnishing a document or information to obtain benefit or payment and one count of failing to notify a change of circumstances.

Chairman of the bench Elizabeth Anderson said she had taken into account Forde had suffered from depression and alcoholism.

She said: “The aggravating features in this case were the amounts involved and the length of time that the fraud took place.

“However, we’ve taken full account of your remorse and personal circumstances at the time the fraud was committed, the fact you’re addressing the issues that have caused you trouble and your medical conditions, as well as your mental illness.”

Forde told Richmond Council officers in an interview that she became an alcoholic and got into debt after her husband of 32 years left her to live with another woman in 2001. She lost her job as a classroom assistant and was evicted from her house in 2006.

The court heard that anyone with more than £16,000 of savings was not entitled to housing or council tax benefits, but Forde did not consider the £136,909 she made from her house to be personal savings and had given a large amount to her children and grandchildren. Forde, who has since returned all the money to the authority, was sentenced to a three year conditional discharge and was ordered to pay £1,420 court costs.