A woman smuggled her illegal immigrant husband into the country and claimed almost £40,000 in fraudulent benefits after he took on the name of a dead cousin to hide his true identity, a court heard.

Mother Julie Ledgister, of Dudley, “stole” a total of £38,857 in income support, council tax and housing benefits from the taxpayer by not revealing her husband lived with her. The 43-year-old admitted the five-year scam at Wolverhampton Crown Court and was jailed for 18 weeks.

The court heard Ledgister, of Ernest Road, had married her husband in the Americas in 1996 and he then entered the country illegally, taking on the name of her dead cousin.

Ledgister fraudulently claimed benefits from June 2003 until she was caught in 2008.

Mr Graham Russell, prosecuting, said the benefit fraud only came to light after a Home Office investigation into her husband, who applied for a passport under the cousin’s name.

Recorder Mr Stephen Thomas said that the offence had been “fraudulent from the outset” and ruled it was clear there had been no question at all of her living in poverty.

He told her: “What you did essentially was steal a large sum of money from the families who pay their taxes by going out to work.

“You were enjoying a rather comfortable life on the back of the money you were not entitled to receive.”

He added that the offences were too serious to warrant anything other than an immediate custodial sentence.

Mr Russell said that when the Home Office discovered the passport application from Ledgister’s husband was fraudulent, they alerted the council who began to investigate.

Officers discovered that he had been living with her while she was claiming benefits, submitting numerous claims for income support, council tax and housing benefits from Dudley Council over five years.

He said that her husband had been sentenced at an earlier hearing.

Mr Malcolm Fowler, defending, said that Ledgister was a woman of previous good character and was in poor health, meaning she would not find it easy serving a prison sentence.