A 57-year-old Dutch woman is facing a spell in jail after driving her dead mother to the Czech Republic and dumping her body in a wood.

The woman, from the village of Rijnsaterwoude between Amstelveen and Leiden, appeared in court on Monday and was charged with attempting to defraud the state and a pension fund by hiding her mother’s death.

The public prosecution department says the woman had financial problems and feared she would lose her home after her terminally ill mother died. It claims the daughter decided to dump her 80-year-old mother’s body so she could continue to cash in her pension.

The two women vanished in May and the police launched an international hunt to find them, involving Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.

When the younger woman turned up, she claimed not to know what had happened to her mother, who had serious dementia. She had also encouraged her 16-year-old daughter to lie about the death, the public prosecution department said.

In August, police discovered the body in woods near Harrachov, where it had been hidden.

The woman is facing 367 days in jail, 300 suspended, and compulsory psychiatric treatment.