A WOMAN who ran up a £30,000 benefits fraud over ten years will have to wait until November before she knows her fate.

Lubna Akhtar came under pressure to settle debts after her husband abandoned her, also leaving the country with his loans outstanding.

She got a job as a care assistant and also claimed Income Support, housing benefit and Council Tax relief.

The 33-year-old mother of Cherry Street, Blackburn, who is due to give birth next month, had been committed for sentence on one offence of false accounting and three others of obtaining money by deception.

She asked for 264 further offences to be considered.

Miss Martine Snowdon, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court that the woman had claimed Income Support from 1990. At the start her claim was legitimate.

She was paid on the basis that she was unemployed, had two dependent children and was not working.

In November 1992 she started working as a care assistant at a nursing home.

As a result of failing to declare earnings she was paid in the region of £21,000 Income Support.

Akhtar was also paid £20,000 housing benefits and over payments of Council Tax in the sum of £1,700.

She would have been entitled to Family Credit and so the net loss was £30,752. The defendant had begun paying the money back and so far had reached £700.

Mr Paul Hague, defending, said Akhtar, who is due to have a child next month, had had an extremely unhappy marriage. Her husband of three years abandoned her.

While they were together he had borrowed over £10,000 in order to set up a business. After they separated he ended up deported.

Mr Hague said "He was pursued by his creditors for a considerable period of time. Mrs Akhtar came under considerable pressure which amounted to threats and harassment.

"The money she obtained was not spent on high living.

"She is aware that this is a very large figure and that custody stares her in the face."

Judge Barbara Watson adjourned to case to November while further information is obtained. Akhtar was remanded on bail.