A mother who pocketed £15,000 from a benefits scam while caring for her sick baby has been jailed for six months.

Dianna Ramsden, 28, had been claiming working family tax credit for 15 months on the basis that she lived alone, when in fact she lived with her husband Mark, Bradford Crown Court was told.

Gerald Hendron, mitigating, told the judge that the youngest of Ramsden's three children was ill with a congenital defect of the larynx and has problems swallowing.

Judge Robert Bartfield told Ramsden that it would have been better if the child could be cared for by its mother, but added that those who stole money from the public purse would end up in prison.

"Otherwise there's no deterrent. Why shouldn't everyone do it?" he said.

Jayne Beckett, prosecuting, told the court that the offences started in January 2002 when Ramsden, formerly of Bewerley Crescent, Woodside, Bradford, but who now lives at Denfield Crescent, Ovenden, Halifax, left her husband's details off the form and then did it again in July 2002 and August 2003.

She said that her husband had left her just ten days into their marriage and that she had no financial links with him, but at an earlier hearing she pleaded guilty to three counts of false accounting.

Mr Hendron told the court the money had been spent on the children and had not funded a luxurious lifestyle, and said that Ramsden was suffering from depression and had had three miscarriages.

Loudon Muir, Investigations Manager for HM Revenue and Customs, said the jail sentence was an indication of what could happen to people who fraudulently claimed tax credits.

He said: "It was a significant case, with a sizeable amount of money involved, but not an exceptional case. It indicates the courts may decide a custodial sentence is the appropriate means of punishing the offender."