A husband and wife have been jailed after admitting cheating the tax payer of more than £42,000.

Michael and Helen Hardacre, of Kimberley Road, Preston, appeared at Preston Crown Court charged with falsely claiming income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

On Wednesday, November 2, Mr Hardacre, 57, was sentenced to ten months in prison, and Mrs Hardacre, 38, was given eight months behind bars.

The cheats were brought before the court following to a joint investigation by Preston City Council and Department for Work and Pensions.

At an earlier court appearance on September 28, Mr Hardacre pleaded guilty to seven counts of false accounting, three counts of obtaining property by deception, and asked for 63 other matters to be taken into consideration.

Mrs Hardacre pleaded guilty to four counts of false accounting and three counts of obtaining property by deception.

The couple had been claiming income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit, but Mr Hardacre had been working since November 1998 and had failed to declare it.

The income support bill ran to £30,470.77, the Housing Benefit tab was £8,963.58, and £2,722.98 was claimed in council tax benefit, bringing the total cost of the fraud to £42,157.33.

Bernard Hayes, director of finance and property services at the council, said: "Benefit fraud is theft and we take appropriate steps to find it and root it out. The message is simple -- if you cheat, we will find you and you could end up going to jail. This case just goes to prove how serious benefit fraud is."

Anybody who suspects fraud, should call 0800 328 6340.