The wife of a former mayor of Pembroke Dock has received a discharge after a judge heard she had repaid all the £13,355 in pension credits she had received without telling anyone her husband was working.

Doris Kraus, aged 68, whose husband Peter served twice as mayor, had admitted failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions of a change in her financial circumstances.

Kraus, of Kent Row, Llanion Park, Pembroke Dock, received pension credits from March 2010 after telling the department she had no income and that her husband was winding down his business.

Richard Ace, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court she had been told several times that if the situation changed she had to notify the DWP.

“That did not happen,” said Mr Ace.

Her husband began working for the National Trust in April 2011, sometimes earning £1,700 a month but in other months nothing at all.

By the time Kraus contacted the DWP, she had been overpaid £13,355.02, which she had since borrowed from her children and repaid to the department.

James Hartson, her barrister, said the offending had not been through dishonesty or recklessness, but negligence.

“She is of impeccable character and finds the whole case very unedifying and salutary. She is mortified to find herself in the dock of the crown court. She will never grace this court again.

“She has never been in debt in her life, not even overdrawn,” he added.

The judge, Mr. Recorder Richard Booth, said the case would have been dealt with by local magistrates but for the intention of the DWP to apply for an order forcing Kraus to repay the money. But that had happened anyway.

Kraus was told the discharge meant that if she reoffended during the next 12 months the sentence could be amended.