A Suffolk mother of six who dishonestly claimed £15,000 of benefits she was not entitled to has walked free from court after a judge told her she had escaped an immediate prison sentence by the “skin of her teeth.”

Although Lisa Wallace initially made a genuine claim for benefits she acted dishonestly by failing to notify the authorities when she started earning money from an ironing and cleaning business, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Wallace, 41, of Hales Barn Road, Haverhill, admitted two offences of dishonestly failing to notify a change in her circumstances over a period of around two years.

She was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, a 20-week curfew and ordered to do 250 hours unpaid work.

Sentencing, Judge David Goodin said she had escaped an immediate prison sentence by the “skin of her teeth.”

Hugh Vass, for Wallace, said his client had repaid nearly £3,000 and if she did not go to prison she planned to pay back more money with a cleaning contract she was due to start next week.