PENSIONER Patricia Curry could be paying for the rest of her life for the only blemish on an otherwise hard working, industrious and honest life.

Blackburn magistrates heard that the 64-year-old grandmother had claimed housing and council tax benefit while working as a hospital cleaner.

And the court was told that Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council was asking for a compensation order of £7,788 as well as £465 costs from the former slipper factory worker .who receives a state pension and whose husband is on incapacity benefits.

The magistrates declined to make an order having heard that the authority was already deducting £10.80 a week from her current housing benefit.

Curry, of Bennington Street, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to three charges of making false statements to obtain benefits.

She was given a conditional discharge for two years and ordered to pay £100 towards the costs of the prosecution.

Michael Blacklidge, defending, said Curry was receiving state retirement pension at the same time as working on Saturday and Sunday mornings as a cleaner at Blackburn Royal Infirmary.

He said: "Never having had anything to do with benefit agencies, she thought she could do a couple of hours as well as but she never asked. I don't think she fully realised at the time what she was doing.

"She and her husband have lived in the same council house for 31 years and it's fair to say they could have bought it several times over with the rent they have paid.

"However, they have little to show for the hard work and honest, law-abiding endeavour that has been their lives. It is a shame when someone having reached retirement age finds themselves in this situation."