Man used stolen bank card to buy bicycle part worth just £6.49

A man who used a stolen bank card to make a purchase worth just £6.49 will now have to pay nearly 15 times that amount following a court appearance.Robert Robertson, 46, of Pandora in Fairstead, wound up at Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, where he pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation.In October last year, he used a bank card belonging to someone else to purchase an inner tube for a bicycle from a town centre shop.

The victim had realised the card was missing the previous day, and CCTV footage was used to identify Robertson making the purchase.Upon being arrested, he told officers he did not know who the card belonged to.In mitigation, solicitor George Sorrell said: “The defendant’s explanation is that he was given the card by somebody to go into the shop to buy the inner tube, and he did what he was told. “He acknowledges that it is not a very sensible thing to do, as it ended up being someone else’s card.”Mr Sorrell told the court Robertson suffers from depression and is a “single man”.Magistrates fined him £40, while he will also pay a £16 victim surcharge and £40 in court costs.