A WELFARE cheat who lied about her income as a firefighter to overclaim more than $37,000 in benefits just made it harder for the genuinely needy, a Cairns magistrate said yesterday.

Lavina Helene Kennedy, 31, was placed on a 12-month intensive correction order and ordered to repay the money after pleading guilty in Cairns Magistrates’ Court to the Commonwealth charge of obtaining a financial advantage for herself.

Referring to Tuesday night’s federal Budget, Magistrate Trevor Black told Kennedy the Government had only been able to make "very minor" increases this year for those on welfare and such rorting of the social security system only further reduced its capacity to help the needy.

"The community abhors this fraudulent taking of Commonwealth funds," Mr Black said.

He said such breaches of honesty also caused the public to lose confidence in the integrity of the system and risked "demonising the genuine and needy in society".

The court heard Kennedy "double-dipped" from Centrelink over a four-year period, claiming benefits and not declaring her income from work as a part-time firefighter with the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service in Townsville from 2003.

However, Mr Black acknowledged the domestic violence Kennedy had been forced to flee from in her past may have contributed to her "head in the sand" attitude over her mounting Centrelink debt.

"It may have been a need rather than greed course of offending," he said.

Defence solicitor Bebe Mellick said his client, who was now living with her son and fiance at Julatten and working full-time as a cook and nursing aide, wanted to "make good for what she’s done".

To that end, Mr Mellick said even though Kennedy declared herself bankrupt with debts of $40,000 in 2007 and was not obliged to pay back the money to Centrelink, she had voluntarily started to do so.

Mr Black made a reparations order for Kennedy to pay back the balance of the debt.

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