A Lowestoft woman accused of obtaining £60,000 of benefits after allegedly failing to inform the authorities that she owned a property in Spain has been cleared after the case against her was dropped.

Before Ipswich Crown Court was Sally Titchner, 58, of Kirkley Park Road, who had denied six offences of making a dishonest representation to obtain income support, housing benefit, council tax benefit, jobseekers’ allowance and employment and support allowance by not declaring she owned a property in Torrevieja.

She had also denied fraud by dishonestly making a false statement to Waveney District Council in respect of discretionary housing payments by failing to give correct details of her capital.

The offences were alleged to have been committed between March 1, 2006, and April 9, 2014.

Today Judge Rupert Overbury directed the jury to return unanimous not guilty verdicts on all charges because of flaws in the prosecution case.

He told the jury that after legal argument, prosecution counsel Simon Gladwell had conceded there was no case for Titchner to answer.

The court heard that Titchner had claimed she was holding the Spanish property in trust for her daughter.