A BENEFITS cheat swindled thousands from the taxpayer - while working for an escort agency and running a property empire.

Scheming Rachel Berkel, 40, drew nearly £28,000 in housing benefit, income support and council tax benefit by posing as a struggling single mum.

But investigators found she actually had a regular job working in "sales" for an escort agency in Offerton, Stockport.

They also discovered she owned a string of at least five properties in affluent locations around the north of England, including at Allithwaite, near Grange-over-Sands, Cheshire and Lincolnshire.

Further investigations revealed she had earned tens of thousands of pounds in profits from buying and selling houses. At one stage when she was claiming housing and council tax benefits she had £42,000 in her bank account.

Berkel, who has an eight year old daughter, is now behind bars after she admitted 15 counts of benefits fraud totalling £27,817 and was jailed for two months.

Chester Crown Court heard she cheated the benefits system over a period of more than five years.

She fraudulently claimed housing benefit and council tax benefits from three local authorities - South Lakeland District Council, Trafford and Cheshire East.

She also claimed income support from the Department for Work and Pensions, which she was not entitled to.

Berkel was caught in 2008 when authorities discovered she was claiming benefits on a rented property in Knutsford, Cheshire, despite owning a house in Allithwaite.

It emerged that she had faked a tenancy agreement in a "sophisticated" con to make it appear that she was renting a property which she owned.

The discovery led to a thorough investigation into her finances which revealed the full extent of her deception.

Berkel, of Woodlands Drive, Knutsford, has been ordered to pay back £17,500 of the defrauded cash.

After the hearing a SLDC spokesman said that a member of the council’s benefit’s team had spotted irregularities with Berkel’s application and the case was passed to fraud officers to investigate. They discovered that she was not a tenant but actually owned the property.

“The investigating officer made further checks and identified irregularities relating to a number of properties in the Cheshire and Manchester areas,” said the spokesman. “Before the council had chance to formally interview Ms Berkel about her benefit claim she moved to an address in Macclesfield.

“Fortunately SLDC didn’t pay Ms Berkel any Housing Benefit, but did pay a small amount of Council Tax Benefit so the amount of SLDC fraud in the overpayment of nearly £28,000 was less then £400.”