A NEWPORT grandmother was yesterday spared a jail sentence and ordered to pay back almost £13,000 after being convicted of benefit fraud.

In what a judge called a "tragic" case, Gloria Taylor, 66, of Conway Road, was "manipulated by others" when she falsely claimed from the Department of Work and Pensions.

The mother of five appeared for sentence at Newport crown court after she was convicted by a jury last month of obtaining property by deception.

In the week-long trial, the jury heard Taylor (pictured) had nine bank accounts with thousands of pounds deposited but she said she did not know where the money came from.

Over three years, the court heard, her accounts showed more than £200,000 was deposited but when she claimed benefits, she said she had no income or savings.

The court heard Taylor won money by gambling on horse racing and on football pools and regularly saved money since arriving from the Caribbean island of St Kitts in 1960.

She made false claims for income support between July 2001 and October 2003 amounting to £12,945

Mary Parry-Evans, for Taylor, told the court yesterday she was a "hard-working and respectable" woman with no previous convictions. She said Taylor would now lose the money she had saved for her pension to return the money and would "ironically" now have to make genuine state benefit claims.

She said the the benefits she received did not fund an "extravagant lifestyle and expensive holidays abroad".

Judge David Morris told Taylor she was a "loyal and conscientious mother and grandmother" who had faced tragedy with "stoicism". However, he said her "persistent and deliberate" offending had crossed the custody threshold.

He said she was not going to prison because of "exceptional circumstances" in that she was "manipulated by others" and was the sole carer for her disadvantaged grandson and was herself not in good health.

She was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for 18 months, and ordered to pay back the money owed.