A MOTHER-OF-TWO who carried out a £16,700 benefits fraud was warned yesterday she could go to prison.

Nicola Hinchliffe wept as her solicitor, Richard Buchanan, outlined to magistrates her catalogue of troubles, including suffering a brain tumour, her mother's death from cancer, a troubled relationship with her partner and debts of £17,000.

Hinchliffe, 31, admitted failing to notify Harrogate Borough Council of a change in benefits claim circumstances and to ten counts of making a false statement to obtain benefits.

Gary Nelson, prosecuting, said Hinchliffe, of The Shepherdies, North Stainley, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, had claimed housing and council tax benefit since 1996.

But when her partner, Philip Ellerker, moved in with her in 1999, she did not tell the council and continued to file benefit applications declaring she was the sole adult in the household. Over six years, she was overpaid £16,764.84.

Mr Nelson said that the part-time bar worker, who has children aged six and one, had a difficult life.

She had nursed her mother, who died from cancer in 1992, and that her father had walked away two years later, blaming her for the death.

She began living with Mr Ellerker in 1999 and the pair had a fragile relationship.

In 2002, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour and had headaches most days, he added.

Court chairman Pamela Henderson called for probation reports to be prepared and bailed Hinchliffe until November 28, warning her all options including prison would be considered.