A MUSSELBURGH woman who claimed more than £47,000 in benefits she was not entitled to has been sentenced.

Angela Hogg was wrongly paid thousands of pounds after she claimed she suffered from a series of ailments.

Among the claims, Hogg, of Pinkie Avenue, said she was confined to a wheelchair, could not walk 800 yards unaided and her disability prevented her from carrying shopping bags and performing everyday tasks without help.

But following an investigation by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) investigators, it became apparent that 59-year-old Hogg was cheating the benefits system.

Hogg had falsely claimed £47,300 from the DWP and the Disability and Carers Service over a near-10-year period after she failed to inform the agencies of an improvement in her condition.

And the Musselburgh resident was ordered to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work in the community and was also placed on a restriction of liberty order for the next eight months following an appearance in front of Sheriff Nigel Ross at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last Tuesday.

Previously, solicitor Mary Moultrie said that her client was repaying the cash, she had “accepted culpability” and that there had been “no real planning” behind the offence.

Ms Moultrie added that Hogg continued to suffer from a “chronic pain situation” and there was “no likelihood of reoffending” from her client.

Hogg pleaded to failing to give the DWP and Disability and Carers Service notification of a change in circumstances which she knew affected her entitlement to disability living allowance, in that she failed to report she was not confined to a wheelchair, could walk unaided up to 800 yards and could stand for long periods of time between November 26, 2002, and June 19, 2012, and did obtain £47,300 she was not entitled to.