A PART-TIME Weston book keeper will have to repay �45,000 after being convicted of six counts of fraud.

Kirsty Dobbins, of Addicott Road, has to pay the money within six months or face 12 months in jail.

The 40-year-old mother-of-two fraudulently claimed almost �25,000 in tax credits as a ‘single’ claimant between November 2004 and May 2008, when she was living in London with the children’s father, Gregory Walcott.

In April 2010 Walcott, aged 34, of Hendon in London, received a suspended prison sentence for income tax evasion of around �38,000.

On Friday at Harrow Crown Court, Her Honour Judge Dangor ruled that Dobbins not only benefited financially from her own tax credit fraud, but must also repay �20,000 of criminal proceeds gained from Walcott’s crimes.

At the same confiscation hearing Gregory Walcott was ordered to repay �1,200 within three months or receive a 28 day default prison sentence.

Richard Meadows, HM Revenue & Customs’ assistant director of criminal investigation, said: “Dobbins deliberately lied about her circumstances to claim money she wasn’t entitled to and also profited from her former partner’s income tax fraud.

“This confiscation clearly shows whether fraudsters benefit from their own or other people’s criminality we will use the Proceeds of Crime Act to pursue them and recover money for the public purse.”

For the same crimes Dobbins was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, on June 18.

She was electronically tagged for three months under a night time curfew between 11pm and 6am, ordered to complete 150 hours of community service and ordered to undergo a training and education programme for 60 days.