A Monkton woman pretended her marriage had lasted only four weeks and went on to swindle almost £30,000 in benefits.

Emma Blackmore was in fact living with husband Wayne in Tenby Court and they even had a child together.

But Blackmore, aged 37, maintained for four years that she was a single woman living alone.

Blackmore, now of Queen Street, Pembroke Dock, admitted six offences of fraud by failing to notify a change in her circumstances.

She was jailed for 12 months, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete 20 days of a rehabilitation activity.

Nuhu Gobir, prosecuting, told Swansea crown court that Blackmore had made genuine claims for income support and other benefits in early 2012 in her maiden name of Emma Hughes, stating she was single, lived alone and could not work due to ill health.

On June 16, 2012, she married Wayne Blackmore but described him to the Department of Work and Pensions as a "traveller man" and said the marriage was already over.

Blackmore continued to make claims and over a four year period she received £29,569 in benefits she had not been entitled to.

Mr Gobir said an investigation revealed that Wayne Blackmore had made it clear on his Facebook page that he was in a relationship and that the couple had become parents.

And further checks showed that his wages were going into his wife's bank account and that as far as his employers were concerned he lived at the same address as his wife.

The judge, Mr Recorder Greg Bull, said he noted that Blackmore had maintained that "times were hard and money had been a struggle."

But that was true for many people in Wales, he said.

Blackmore, he added, had defrauded the public purse at a cost to other members of the community but sending her to jail immediately would not achieve anything.

And neither was she in a position to repay any of the money.