A WOMAN who has admitted making false subsidy claims for a school milk cooperative, yesterday also pleaded guilty to falsely claiming income support.

Paula Eltringham, 44, was managing director of a company which traded as School Fuel, a parent-run cooperative supplying milk to primary and nursery schools on Wearside.

School Fuel, set up at premises in Hylton Road, Sunderland, in 1995, was wound up by the High Court in Newcastle, in January last year, after amassing debts of more than £127,000.

Eltringham came before Durham Crown Court in June, when she admitted fraudulent trading with intent to defraud creditors of the company, between September 1995 and December 1998, plus two charges of securing funding of more than £31,000 by deception.

In both cases, funds were paid by the Intervention Board, set up by the Government to offer EU subsidies for cheap milk supplied to the under-11s.

Eltringham returned to court yesterday to face a further charge of obtaining £19,307 by deception from the Department of Social Security.

But Jonathan Aitken, prosecuting, applied to have the charge amended to false accounting, by falsely claiming income support.

Eltringham, of Wilmore Street, Millfield, Sunderland, admitted the charge, and was bailed to return for sentence at a later date pending preparation of probation reports