A former employee of Bromley Council has been jailed for using a false identity to work.

Stephanie Okpaire, 43, of Pontefract Road in Bromley, was jailed for 15 months after pleading guilty to four counts of housing benefit fraud and deception by using a false identity.

Okpaire was employed by Bromley Council from April 2005 until February 2015 under the name Stephanie Dole, earning £178,686.

She also falsely claimed £11,432 in housing benefit between 2000 and 2006.

MORE TOP STORIES Okpaire applied for a job under the name Dole, claiming she was born in Paris and produced a French National Identity card and UK driving license.

But in a renewal check in 2014 she provided a UK passport in the name Okpaire and stated she was born in Nigeria.

After failing to produce her birth certificate and UK driving license to prove her true identity she resigned.

A check with the French Consulate provided a photo of the true Stephanie Dole, who turned out to be a Caucasian woman and not the black woman Bromley Council had employed.

Minutes before her trial was due to start at Croydon Crown Court she changed her plea to guilty.

Judge Tanzer sentenced her to 12 months for each of the benefit fraud charges and 15 months for the charge of theft by deception to run concurrently last Wednesday (July 15).

She was also ordered to pay costs of £2,500 and a statutory victim charge.