A woman who used her knowledge as a local authority employee to devise a dishonest scheme to avoid paying council tax has been spared jail because she has to care for her ailing mother.

Edwina Wood and her partner Paul Roberts were told they had escaped custody by the skin of their teeth.

After being told about their personal circumstances a judge said: “These two people are proven and persistent liars, and clever liars. I simply don’t trust them - and why should I?

“If they are lying now to any extent it will become known in due course. They need to know that what is advanced on their behalf is part of the course of justice that should not be perverted.”

They were sentenced to six months imprisonment suspended for 18 months with 100 hours unpaid work each.

Wood, 52, was a benefit assessor at Medway Council in 2010 when she and Wood, 39, started dodging paying council tax for their rented home in Chatham High Street by creating false identities for tenants they claimed lived there.

"These two people are proven and persistent liars, and clever liars. I simply don’t trust them - and why should I?" - Judge Jeremy Carey

Prosecutor Alexia Zimbler said Wood previously did not pay the tax and repayments were deducted from her salary.

In October 2010, the council was informed Thomas Roberts was the new tenant. He was billed for £540 but only one payment of £135 was made.

Efforts were made to recover the balance but because it as stated he was self-employed an “attachment to earnings” could not be made.

“Edwina Wood was employed by the council as a contact customer advisor who assisted the public with benefits and council tax related matters in the benefit assessment team,” Miss Zimbler told Maidstone Crown Court.

“She had an in-depth knowledge of council tax rules and procedures and would have known that an attachment to earnings order could not be made where the liable party was self-employed.”

Wood carried out the same ruse for other tenants called Thomas Roberts, Ed Read and Isaac Hutchinson.

In March 2013, the council began to receive £20 a week towards the tax.

Council colleagues were under the impression Wood lived in a large house in Bearsted with security gates.

But Landlord George Cracklen confirmed that Wood had been his tenant since 1999.

Miss Zimbler said Wood and Roberts avoided paying a total of £2,473 and there were others costs involved in trying to recover the money.

The couple gave false accounts when interviewed.

They admitted conspiracy to defraud and four charges of fraud were left on the court file.