BENEFIT cheats are being warned that they could face a court appearance when they are caught.

Middlesbrough Council's benefit fraud team took action against 50 claimants in 2003-04 - almost twice the national average - and uncovered £200,000 worth of over-payments.

"The data matching technology, which is one of the main tools for fraud detection, is improving all the time," said Paul Slocombe, the authority's director of resour-ces.

"That means that it is getting harder by the day for benefit cheats to hide, and those who are caught are finding a hard line approach is being taken."

During the year, the team investigated 469 cases referred to them through the data matching process, the work of the benefit assessment teams and members of the public.

As a result, 16 people were prosecuted while another 21 had to pay an administration penalty and a further 13 were officially cautioned.

Service, Middlesbrough's fraud team, is also undertaking inquiries in co-operation with JobCentre Plus investigators.

Mr Slocombe said: "Pooling resources, intelligence and experience in this way is proving to be extremely beneficial in the fight against benefit fraud.

"A joint exercise last year, specifically looking at people who did not declare their true household circumstances, detected 209 cases where a partner had not been declared on their benefit claim.

"The message that the people of Middlesbrough must understand is that beating benefit fraud is everyone's business.

"Benefit fraud is not a victimless crime, and those who steal from the system should be viewed as taking money from those who are genuinely in need. The activities of this team protect large amounts of public money and deserve everyone's support."

Anyone with information they want to pass on to the benefit fraud team can call (01642) 726355.