A MUM-OF-THREE has been spared a lengthy jail term despite breaching an order for "aggravated begging" only a week after it was issued by the courts.

Gemma Marie Dean, 28, was sentenced to a five-year Criminal Behaviour Order on June 12, but pleaded guilty to a fraud offence from June 19 during a hearing at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

She also pleaded guilty to breaching the terms of the order, which was issued to prevent her from approaching any business or home to beg for money.

Dean, of Methuen Oval, Wyke, had been given the order after admitting a number of fraud charges in which she conned people out of cash by saying she needed a taxi to visit her son in hospital.

Duncan Ritchie, prosecuting, told the court that on June 19 Dean had knocked on the door of Margaret and Douglas Blackwell at their Shipley home asking to borrow £5 for a taxi after claiming her boyfriend had thrown her out of a car.

After Dean "feigned distress", Mrs Blackwell was persuaded to hand over £20 and called a taxi for her.

She was said to have left the house, before stopping the taxi after a short distance, paying a £2.50 fare and keeping the £17.50 change for herself.

Dean was said to have returned to the address on two occasions over the following days, claiming she would pay back the money, before then saying she had money problems and couldn't afford to pay bills.

On the second occasion, Mr Blackwell detained Dean at the house and called the police, who subsequently arrested her.

James Bourne-Arton, mitigating for Dean, who appeared via videolink from New Hall Prison, said prior to breaching the order she had been making progress with a rehabilitation programme.

She had previously admitted begging for the money to pay for Class A drugs, and Mr Bourne-Arton said she had suffered a "setback" which led her to use heroin after finding out her great-grandma was ill.

Dean had been warned she could be jailed for up to five years for breaching the order, but Judge Colin Burn sentenced her to 30 days in prison for the two offences.

"You must not be in any doubt that if there is another example of this behaviour in a week's time, the court cannot deal with you so leniently a second time," he said.

"You have to keep your side of the bargain and make this order work."

As Dean has already served 15 days in custody, she will be released immediately, and Judge Burn ordered her to attend an appointment at the Unity recovery centre in Bradford today.

She was also ordered to pay a £900 criminal courts charge, and an £80 surcharge.