A 61-year-old benefit crook wailed as she was jailed for eight months for a �51,000 fraud.

Amtul Bibi gave a fake tenancy agreement to claim up to �180-a-week for five years, while living with her two sons in a �260,000 house owned by her husband.

The couple were estranged but Bibi’s ex-partner let her move in to the property within weeks of him buying it in April 2002, while he lived elsewhere.

Bibi, of Kensington Avenue, Manor Park, admitted nine counts of making a false representation.

Sentencing at Inner London Crown Court, Judge Usha Karu told Bibi: “There can be no doubt that from the beginning, you knew it was your husband who owned the property, and therefore you were not entitled to claim that benefit.

“So this was a fraudulent claim from the outset and lasted something like five years.

“The total amount, a substantial amount, was �51,353.90.”

Ben Rogers, prosecuting, said Bibi’s late husband Mohammed Latif Bhatti registered the property with Londinium Estate Agents in Romford Road, Manor Park.

He told them he had a tenant at the house, in Kensington Avenue and the handouts were paid to the agent by Newham Council.

Later he started using lettings firm Faith International and from then the cheques went to Bibi, who was legitimately claiming income support.

The bogus claims were exposed in 2007 when Mr Bhatti noted his ownership of the property on an official document.

She was quizzed by investigators in November that year but denied he was her landlord.

Despite pleas by defence counsel for a suspended sentence, Judge Karu told Bibi: “I take the view that this was deliberate and conscious offending by you.

“The only sentence it seems to me, bearing in mind all the factors, is one of custody.’