A MOTHER of three who claimed handouts of almost £21,000 as a single person - but went on the TV programme Wife Swap - has been spared jail.

Rebecca Fairhurst, 31, "stole" the cash in a near four-year fiddle whilst living most of the time with long-term partner Jason Hill. She appeared on the Channel 4 programme in November, 2004, after being chosen for her outspoken views and afterwards courted and enjoyed "celebrity status," heaping embarrassment, shame and humiliation on her three young children and alerting the Department for Work and Pensions to her dishonesty, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Fairhurst, whose barrister claimed she had been "tortured" by the tabloid press, had posed for "indiscreet" photos for money after the programme, but had not paid back a penny of the cash she took from the state.

She was given 100 hours community punishment and a 12 months community rehabilitation order by a judge who said she had been found out in quite a bizarre way - by her own stupidity or arrogance in appearing on television.

Judge Beverley Lunt continued: "The clue was in the title. Wife Swap."

The judge said the defendant had persistently abused the benefits system, there had been no evidence she had been in dire financial straits and two incomes had been going into her home.

She told the court Fairhurst had laid bare her personal life and exposed her children to the country through newspapers, had enjoyed the publicity, and had not shied away from it.

Judge Lunt went on: "I have been asked to somehow hold the tabloid press responsible for the damage caused to you and your family. From everything that I have read you welcomed the attention."

The judge also ordered a press ban on Fairhurst's current address - but stressed it was only to protect her children.

The defendant, formerly of Derby Street, Colne, admitted five counts of failing to notify a change in circumstances between June 2001 and October 2004 and asked for 77 offences to be considered.. She had no previous convictions. Shaun Brogan, prosecuting for the DWP, said the defendant had claimed income support on the basis she was single, lived alone, did not work and had no other source of income but the Wife Swap programme highlighted the fact she and Mr Hill lived together.

She was overpaid a total of £20,939.01. Alex Leach, defending, said Fairhurst had been naive.

She never anticipated the level of media attention or the way she had been characterised by the tabloids and thought when the programme finished so would the press attention.

"What followed after the programme was "a pattern of grotesque behaviour".

Fairhurst had enjoyed a kind of celebrity status, was persuaded and cajoled into a demeaning photo shoot and she and her family had suffered a great deal.

She had been tortured by the press, her eldest child had left home after being bullied.