Rebecca Gray worked as a customer advisor at HMRC’s Merry Hill office for nearly eight years, advising members of the public on their tax credits claims. She was arrested in March 2016 and immediately suspended.

HMRC investigators discovered that instead of being a single mum living at an address in Wolverhampton as she claimed, she had been living in Dudley with her partner between July 2014 and April 2016.

Investigators found that Gray had also overstated costs of childcare for seven years as well as under-declaring her household income and lying about the amount of maternity ay she had received, in order to increase her tax credit and child tax credit payments. In total she falsely claimed £56,344.

Gray admitted to fraudulently claiming tax credits at Walsall Magistrates Court in March 2017. She has now been sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years.

At sentencing, the judge said: ‘You behaved despicably due to the length of time of the fraud, the four separate ways you conducted your crime and were in a unique position given your employment with HMRC.’

Joff Parsons, assistant director, internal governance, HMRC, said: ‘Gray’s role was to advise others on claiming tax credits and safeguard taxpayers’ money. But she abused her position of trust and took full advantage of the knowledge she had gained through her job, effectively stealing from the people she was employed to help.

‘HMRC is committed to the highest level of integrity and we take the strongest possible action against the tiny minority who let us all down by falling short of those standards.’

Confiscation proceedings to recover the proceeds of the crime will follow.