A TEENAGER has admitted her part in one of Britain's biggest benefit cheque scams.

Lauren Erskine, aged 19, of Cook Square, Erith, has appeared at Blackfriars Crown Court charged with conspiracy to defraud on or before October 3 last year.

Two of her co-defendants Tracey Flanagan, aged 23, from Harlesden, north London, and Sean Pugh, aged 39, from Walthamstow, east London, also pleaded guilty to a similar charge.

Four other defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The court heard how the gang hoped to pocket more than £1m worth of benefit cheques, which had been stolen while in the post.

It is alleged cheques were stolen at sorting offices and the payees' names altered to match stolen credit cards and passports.

Gang members travelled to post offices across the country, as far afield as Wales and Yorkshire, where they exchanged the cheques for cash.

Lesley Brookman, a fraud investigator for the Department for Work and Pensions, which is prosecuting the case, said: "This is possibly the biggest of its kind.

"It is a wide-ranging and well organised fraud involving more than 1,000 stolen Giro cheques, worth a total of at least £1m."

Erskine and Flanagan were granted conditional bail and Pugh was remanded in custody by Judge Charles Byers, who ordered reports on all three.

Sentencing was adjourned until the end of the trial on the other four defendants.

They include Achille Louthe, aged 40, from Lambeth, who denies pocketing up to £500 worth of cheques while working at Walworth sorting office in south-east London.

Leigh Armour, aged 50, of Gypsy Hill, south-east London; Kazadi Kayembe, aged 44, from Herne Hill, south-east London and Farooq Mushtaq, aged 29, of Huddersfield, west Yorkshire, deny conspiracy to defraud.

Their trial is due to begin on June 4.