MOTHER-of-three Donna Kemp embarked on a ten-month long benefits scam so her children would not starve, a court heard yesterday.

Harrogate magistrates heard how Kemp, 26, did not tell the Department for Work and Pensions about her new husband and so received income support of £4,031.65 she should not have had.

She pleaded guilty to four charges of making a false representation to obtain benefit.

Kemp, of Doublegates Green, Ripon, asked for 41 similar offences to be considered and was ordered to do 80 hours of unpaid community work.

Stuart Berry, prosecuting, said Kemp, who had been receiving income support for more than three years, had begun her deception in September last year and continued it until July.

She claimed she was a single parent with dependent children and had no income other than child benefit.

But inquiries showed that on September 21, last year, she married Christopher Kemp, having lived with him for some time before that.

Kemp told investigators she knew she should have declared her marriage but she had been under financial pressures.

In mitigation, Simon Crosfield said Kemp, who had two sons from a previous marriage one of whom lived with her, now had a third son.

Mr Crosfield said Kemp's husband, a landscape gardener was a heavy drinker. ''When he has the money he will go out and drink nine or ten pints,'' he said.

Mr Crosfield said while she knew she was doing wrong, Kemp had decided taking money from the state was a better alternative than seeing her children starve because of a lack of money for food.