By Staff Reporter

Published at 12:26, Tuesday, 12 February 2013

A MAN who tried to get out of trouble by pretending his girlfriend had died has been sentenced for fraud.

Adam White, 21, made the claim to Deborah Wilkinson to hide the fact that the car she had just bought from him was not his to sell.

He said he could not find the ownership documents because his girlfriend had just died from cancer after giving birth.

At Carlisle Crown Court White, of Green Croft, Askham, near Penrith, pleaded guilty to committing fraud by false representation by selling the £1,700 car knowing it still belonged to a finance company.

The court heard that White put his Seat Leon car up for sale on the internet just a few weeks after an £800 loan secured against from Mobile Money Ltd, which meant it was the finance company that then owned it, not him.

Miss Wilkinson responded to the advertisement, and asked him if there was any outstanding finance on the car, said prosecutor Becky McGregor. White told her there was not, so she paid him £1,700 for it.

He told her he had mislaid the paperwork, but told her not to worry because he would send it on, the court heard.

Miss Wilkinson made further requests for it when he failed to send it, and he played for time by telling her that his partner had just died of cancer after giving birth. Ms Wilkinson discovered this was not true by contacting his then partner, Jamie-Lee Skelton.

Mobile Money Ltd. became aware of the sale in October, Ms McGregor said.

After White was arrested he admitted he had put Ms Wilkinson’s money towards a Subaru Impreza car.

When interviewed by police he said the first car had been bought for him by his grandparents in June, but he had taken out the loan against it because his girlfriend Ms Skelton was pregnant with their second child.

He admitted failing to repay the loan, and failing to tell the finance company what he was doing.

White was made to pay back the woman’s £1,700, put under a 12-month community order and ordered to do 120 hours unpaid community work. He was also made to pay £100 costs, with a £10 victim surcharge.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk