A LLITHFAEN woman who admitted making fraudulent loan applications to the Department for Work and Pensions, supposedly for a vulnerable neighbour, has received a 27-week suspended jail term.

Sharon Jones, 33, of Awelfryn, was told by Judge Huw Rees at Caernarfon Crown Court: “You deliberately targeted a vulnerable victim to try and dig yourself out of a financial mess.”

She must complete 180 hours unpaid work and attend a thinking skills course.

Prosecuting counsel Matthew Curtis said the neighbour, also in her 30s, signed six budgetary loan applications but didn’t know about 17 more. The DWP allegedly lost more than £6,000.

Mr Curtis said Jones had become involved in Brenda Roberts’s finances, to assist her, between August 2011 and March 2015.

The judge said Jones was arrested in April 2015 but not charged until April last year. “Lamentable, isn’t it?” he remarked.

Jones pleaded guilty to an offence of fraud.

Elen Owen, defending, said: ”This is a sad case where the offending has come about as a result of two women of similar age, both of them struggling daily with issues.”

Counsel said Jones assisted family members who had health problems.

Ms Owen urged the court to suspend the sentence.

Judge Rees told the defendant: “I am not going to send you to prison.”

After hearing she was interviewed in English for a pre-sentence report, he added: “I am very sorry you were not interviewed by the probation service in Welsh. That is atrocious in my view.” The judge said in open court: ”I would like someone in the probation service to explain why this defendant wasn’t interviewed in Welsh.”

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