A woman of 79 had her bank card stolen by a man who asked her to help him with some paperwork.
Wayne Killingsworth, the partner of a young woman described as the victim’s “grandaughter-in-law”, then drew £250 from Winifred Carr’s bank account in two transactions at an ATM at Sainsbury’s.
Rebecca Ritson, prosecuting, said Killingsworth visited Mrs Carr on January 24 asking her to give him some help with paperwork.
At one point, she left Killingsworth in the living room – where her handbag was – while she went off to make some tea.
Miss Ritson said Mrs Carr discovered her bank card was missing the next day.
Mrs Carr went to her bank, HSBC, and a list of transactions showed £150 had been withdrawn at Sainsbury’s at 10.43am on January 24 and another £100 from the same ATM at 1.23pm that day.
Miss Ritson said the bank refunded the money.
She said at first Mrs Carr couldn’t believe Killingsworth would do something like that to her.
“As a result of the incident, she wants nothing more to do with her grandaughter-in-law,” Miss Ritson said.
She continued: “If she could say anything to him, she would just like to ask him why he did it because the sad thing is that if he had just asked she would have lent him the money.”
Miss Ritson said the matter was originally set down for a trial but the prosecution were notified a week before that he had changed his plea to guilty.
She asked for £150 costs, instead of the usual £85, as the crown had prepared for a trial.
Miss Ritson said Killingsworth received a 15-month prison sentence from the crown court for burglary in February 2010.
“The victim of the burglary was a man with learning difficulties who had been befriended by the defendant and so not entirely dissimilar in nature,” she said.
Killingsworth (37), of Clover Way, Spalding, pleaded guilty to fraud by dishonestly using Mrs Carr’s bank card without her permission to dishonestly obtain £250 for himself.
The court adjourned the hearing to June 13 for a full pre-sentence report from the probation service.
Killingsworth was granted conditional bail to that date.
Solicitor Carrie Simson, for Killingsworth, told the court: “Quite simply there is no mitigation for me to put forward in relation to the offence.
“I have taken instructions from him and quite simply there is no mitigation. I suspect you may want to ask for a report.”