A WOMAN who claimed thousands of pounds in benefits while her husband earned £130,000 a year has been ordered to pay back the money.

Lisa Spindler, from Benfleet, failed to notify the authorities she and her husband had got back together and was wrongly claiming benefits as a single person.

Spindler, 40, admitted fraudulently claiming £19,872 in income support and £2,665 in council tax benefit between 2006 and 2009 – totalling £22,537.

She was originally charged with five frauds relating to a total of £37,000 in wrongly-claimed benefits. Three of the charges were dropped when she admitted the other two.

She was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for a year.

Yesterday, she was ordered to repay £35,802, which was considered the total sum she had available to pay back.

Judge Jonathan Black, who issued the confiscation order during a proceeds of crime hearing at Basildon Crown Court yesterday, gave Spindler six months to pay the money back.

The delay was because her husband needs to sell their house to cover the costs.

She will be sent to prison for nine months if she fails to repay the money by December 28.

Spindler, of Leighton Road, started claiming benefits when her husband was jailed for a year for assault.

After he was released from prison, the couple remained apart, but later rekindled their relationship in 2006.

Spindler took almost three years to inform the authorities she was no longer single.

Her benefit claims before they got back together had been legitimate.