A fraudster swindled more than £18,000 worth of phones then sold them to strangers on Facebook for “easy money”.
Michael Challenger used false details to create 60 telephone accounts with BT and managed to get hold of 26 expensive mobile phones.
The unemployed benefits claimant cost the telecommunications company £18,317, Teesside Crown Court heard today.
Challenger, 36, used other people’s names including a Middlesbrough solicitor’s firm in the fraud between July last year and March this year.
He was easily traced as he gave his own bank details and address at Roman Road, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough.
Police found letters addressed to different people about the phone accounts when they came to his door on March 20.
He confessed he created the accounts and sold the phones through Facebook.
He said he got the idea from obtaining a phone legitimately in the past.
“He’d sold the phone and realised this was easy money,” said prosecutor Sue Jacobs
Challenger admitted the fraud, which breached a suspended four-month prison sentence imposed for thefts in February last year.
He had 35 previous offences including fraud and deception.
Alex Bousfield, defending, said Challenger was £6,500 in debt at the time following a relationship breakup.
He said: “It wasn’t to provide money for drugs or drink. He spent the money on his family, on his children.
“Clearly BT shouldn’t have to support his family in that way and he shouldn’t have taken advantage of what he found to be a very easy way of obtaining money from BT.
“He accepts he is going to have to make some kind of recompense to BT in due course.
“He’s only on Jobseeker’s Allowance at the present time.”
The judge, Recorder Simon Phillips QC, told Challenger: “There was a degree of considerable persistence in your dishonest actions against BT.
“You obtained some 26 high-value telephones. You submitted some 60 or so applications.
“The upshot was a loss in excess of £18,000.
“This was deliberate and premeditated offending on your part.
“You were struggling at the time. You were dependent on state benefits and were suffering poor health.”
He jailed Challenger for nine months - six for the fraud, three from the old suspended sentence.
In light of Challenger’s financial situation, he was not ordered to pay compensation or costs.
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