A mother-of-five who claimed to be a single parent in need of benefit was living with her partner for years and swindling the taxpayer out of more than £29,000.
Jeanette McNab has four of her children with her current partner, aged 16, nine, five and 21 months, and a 24-year-old son from a previous relationship.
Having known her for 20 years, her partner gave her name as next of kin and called her his fiancee and had bank accounts and credit cards at her address.
McNab admitted she was committing fraud - because she should have informed the authorities he was living with her.
At Nottingham Crown Court, she pleaded guilty to two offences.
But she was not sent to prison because of her children and particular long-standing health problems.
Judge Michael Stokes QC gave her 12 months concurrently on both charges, suspended for one year, with a tagged home curfew for 90 days, between the hours of 9pm and 6am.
He told McNab, 41, of Rivermead, Cotgrave: "Over a period of several years you have, from the outset it seems, deliberately applied for benefit and housing benefit and council tax reduction or exemption on a wholly false basis.
"You have four children, aged between 21 months and 16 years, all of whom have been fathered by the man you have manifestly been living with over a lengthy period of time."
He said she deserved to go to prison for 12 months, giving her credit for her guilty pleas, but he could not ignore the fact that she is a mother with health problems.
However, he stressed that it had to be known in cases of deliberate fraud that having children "cannot be produced as the ace of Trumps" in avoiding an immediate custodial sentence.
Sarah Munro, prosecuting, said the total overpayment of benefit to McNab was £29,315.49.
She had claimed income support between August 5, 2010, and January 22, 2014, on the grounds she was single with four children.
She received housing benefit and council tax benefit for the same reasons over the same timeframe, the court heard.
Adrian Reynolds, in mitigation, said McNab had been working as a cleaner at a nursery for nearly a year and her partner is not well paid.
He said: "This is not someone engaging in a Champagne fraud."
