Ipswich Crown Court has heard a crooked cleaner made £46,000 by stealing from her clients, including some who were elderly and vulnerable.

Ipswich Star: Michelle SmythMichelle Smyth (Image: Archant)

Michelle Smyth, formerly of Bull Road, Ipswich, was jailed for the third time in four years in January.

Now a proceeds of crime hearing before the crown court has been told the 28-year-old’s benefit from her thefts was £45,854.

However, her only asset is a Audi A3 worth £1,500 which has now been made the subject of a confiscation order.

The court ordered the vehicle to be sold and Smyth to hand over the £1,500 within six months or serve another six weeks in prison in default.

She is currently serving a 20-month jail term after admitting eight counts of fraud and asking for 11 other offences to be taken into consideration.

Smyth managed to get a job as a cleaner despite her previous convictions.

She stole bank card details, personal details and cheques from people whose houses she was cleaning.

Smyth, formerly of Kings Close, Woodbridge, was previously jailed in June 2013 for 24 months after obtaining bank details while cleaning homes and using them to steal more than £10,000.

On that occasion she had been given cleaning work by three agencies despite being imprisoned for 14 months in 2011 for stealing more than £20,000 from the Manor Ballroom Social Club in Ipswich.

When she was sentenced in 2013 after committing 31 offences of fraud and dishonesty, Smyth was said to have used the money to pay for things such as her milk bills.

Her latest frauds included paying a storage company for rental and purchasing car insurance online.

In January 2011 Smyth was jailed after trying to blame her 76-year-old father for stealing £24,000 from the Manor Ballroom Social Club in St Margaret’s Green, Ipswich.

Then living in Neath Drive, Ipswich, Smyth stole the money after offering to bank it for him.

At the time of the theft her father was the treasurer of the club.