Fraudster is spared from jail after he went on a spending spree with a missing credit card

A fraudster who used someone else's credit card five times to pay for nearly £100 of goods and a McDonald's breakfast for two has narrowly been spared from jail.
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Chesterfield magistrates’ court heard on November 21 how Lee Carl Woodger, 27, of no fixed abode, had been given the MBNA card which belonged to someone else and he went on a mini-spree buying goods and a breakfast for two.

Prosecuting solicitor Becky Allsop said the card was originally reported missing to police by someone who had taken a funny turn in the gardens of the town hall.

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She added: “Woodger came to the attention of police and he had possession of the card and CCTV showed various transactions showing he had been using the card.

Courts.Courts.
Courts.

“He had used it on five times with contactless payments adding up to £126.67 in total.”

Woodger told police he had been given the MBNA credit card by another male and he admitted he also knew the original person who owned and had lost the card but said he had not stolen it.

He added that he had used the card to buy scratch cards, cigarettes and had shared some of the food he had bought.

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Woodger, who has previous convictions, pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud by making a false representation by using someone else’s credit card to make a gain between September 4 and 5.

Defence solicitor Kevin Tomlinson said: “The complainant had lost the credit card and the circumstances surrounding that are of no connection to Woodger.

“He said he was given the card but accepts this was not legitimate and in the space of 24 hours the card was used.

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“Items were obtained and one offence was from McDonald’s and was made in the early hours of the morning and items appear to be bought for himself and one other person.

“The other items were of a small nature from a Loggin’s store in Chesterfield, and a newsagent and a store on West Bars.”

Purchases were for subsistence because Woodger had no income and he had been struggling with a claim for Universal Credit, according to Mr Tomlinson.

Mr Tomlinson said: “His principle difficult at the time of these offences was that he was on the streets and had no income.”

Magistrates sentenced Woodger to ten weeks of custody suspended for 12 months and ordered that he pay £126.67 in compensation.