Jason Jenkins, 34, and Jane McCormack, 28, were able to cheat King's College Hospital, south London, with "astounding" ease, Inner London Crown Court was told.

The pair handed in "six bin-bags full" of forms claiming they were visiting their four-year-old son Harry, who had jaundice.

At the scam's height, the couple were both pocketing up to �3,500 a week by handing in forms every hour for 14 hours a day.

Ms McCormack filled out all the forms because Mr Jenkins, a carpenter, was dyslexic, the court heard.

Forge signature

The fraud only came to light when Mr Jenkins went to the police "in a fit of pique" after the couple split up, said Edward Lewis, prosecuting.

Mr Jenkins, of Patmore Street, Wandsworth, south London, and Ms McCormack, of Millfield, Ninfield, Battle, East Sussex, admitted obtaining property by deception between 30 August 2000 and 1 March 2003.

Mr Lewis said: "They were tipped the wink by another patient as to how to perpetrate this fraud. The fraud was simple - so simple was it that it is astounding."

As Ms McCormack and Mr Jenkins were both unemployed and receiving benefits, they were entitled to claim travel expenses to visit their son in hospital.

The couple, who had only to give simple details and forge a doctor's signature to make the bogus claims, even pretended they had split up and moved further away to request more money.