A mother-of-two from the Black Country who falsely banked more than £50,000 in benefits and took her family on holiday with the cash was today behind bars.

Despite being married, Shirley Bloomfield, of Ruskin Street, West Bromwich, claimed she was single on application forms applying for income support, council tax and housing benefits. The 38-year-old was reported to the Department of Social Security by a member of the public, and was jailed for a year at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.

She pleaded guilty to six charges of defrauding the public revenue between May 2002 and November 2006.

Judge Philip Parker told her: “Taking money to which you are not entitled is a scourge on the rest of the community which the country can ill afford.”

Mr Neil Chawla, prosecuting, said Bloomfield’s relationship with husband Eugene, whom she married in 1996, was “turbulent” and that they had periodically split up and been reconciled.

The court heard her initial claims for income support, on the basis she was a single mother of two came during two periods of separation, were legitimate.

But she continued to claim income support after they got back together and began to claim housing and council tax benefit.

The couple went on holiday in May 2006 and booked a trip to Turkey for the family on their return but they separated six months later. Her estranged husband and his new girlfriend took the trip instead.

Bloomfield claimed her husband was not giving her any money and she had outstanding loans. She fraudulently claimed £24,404 in income support and £26,749 in council tax and housing supplements over four and a half years. She is now repaying the debt at the rate of £4.95 a week.