A benefit fiddler swindled almost £50,000 of taxpayers’ money while boasting on Facebook that she was running a property business in Spain.

Louise Jones carried on claiming British disability benefits for almost a decade after moving to the Spanish sun but was caught out after posting pictures of her wedding to a property developer on social media.

An inquiry showed she was also claiming housing benefit for two houses owned by her husband Bruce McHardy in Hull and Cleethorpes while she was living with him near Alicante.

Jones posted images on Facebook of her engagement to Mr McHardy in 2015 and her wedding in July 2017 and went to describe herself as managing director of his Spanish property business.

The marriage was short-lived because he ditched her as soon as the benefits cash dried up, leaving her to move back to her family in Devon and face the music, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Jones, aged 50, of Coombeshead Road, Kingsteignton, admitted eight counts of benefit fraud and was jailed for six months, suspended for two years by Judge Peter Johnson.

He also set a timetable for the seizure of any remaining assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act. These may include any joint interest in the two houses owned by Mr McHardy.

The judge told her: ‘You were a person of good character but that has been blown away.

‘This was dishonesty of a high order which represent a deeply entrenched course of dishonesty on your part.

‘You claimed housing benefit on two properties where you said you were living when you clearly were not.

‘I accept you were perhaps in thrall to a controlling individual in a relationship which came to an end as a result of the cessation of these benefits.”

Miss Sally Daulton, prosecuting, said Jones claimed a total of £46,867.14 in disability and housing benefits and employment support allowance between 2007 and 2016.

She also claimed another £33,000 in severe disability allowance, but was entitled to claim that even when living in Spain.

Checks showed she had spent more than half of each year abroad and Facebook posts recorded her relationship with Mr McHardy.

She said: ‘She appeared on Facebook as Louise McHardy, managing director of McHardy Spanish Properties and it is clear they were living together in Spain.

‘She was asked in interview if she could name any of her neighbours at the houses in Hull and North Lincolnshire and she could not.’

Mr Martin Salloway, mitigating, said Jones, who has reverted to her own name, is initiating divorce proceedings this week. She now sees the relationship was abusive and that she was exploited.

She made full admissions, has never been in trouble before, and medical notes showed she did suffer from arthritis and depression and would have been entitled to claim benefits in Britain.