A nurse has been jailed for fraudulently claiming almost £45,000 in benefits.

Dana Afrakomah Owusu, 28, claimed for rented accommodation in Kithurst Crescent, Goring, where she lived with her two children, aged seven and one.

She started claiming housing and council tax benefit in April 1998 and income support in April 1999, declaring that she was unemployed.

But in September 2008 she was found to have started work as a nurse at Worthing Hospital five years earlier and had not declared it.

At Chichester Crown Court she pleaded guilty to five counts of benefit fraud, having illegally claimed £23,268.35 in income support, £18,551.93 housing benefit and £2,916.49 in council tax benefit, a total of £44,736.76.

She was sentenced to 12 months in prison with a recommendation that she served six months behind bars and the remainder of the sentence on licence.

Owosu, also known as Banyard, was brought to justice by Worthing Borough Council and the Department for Work and Pensions.