Woman forced to take out £2,500 bogus loans by man who threatened to tell parents they were sleeping together

He threatened to tell Baljinder Chana's conservative-minded parents that he was sleeping with her if she did not follow his instructions, a judge heard.

The 26-year-old from Wolverhampton gave false names to borrow money from different branches of the Money Shop in Bilston, Walsall, Birmingham and Crewe using the same date of birth, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The scam was uncovered when she called at the firm's city centre shop in Darlington Street, Wolverhampton on July 15, said Mr Philip Brunt, prosecuting.

He explained: "She went to legitimately cash a cheque and told the staff she had another account that could not be found until they checked the system and discovered a warning not to deal with the woman because she had taken out loans using false names."

Police were called and Chana admitted the frauds on an agreed basis that a man was threatening to tell her family he was in a sexual relationship with her, the court heard. She was to make a modest amount of money from the racket but the bulk of the cash was for the man, said Mr Brunt.

Less than two weeks before her arrest the cash-strapped 'vulnerable' defendant had also tricked a friend out of £1,385 on July 2, it was revealed.

Chana watched as the other woman keyed in her credit card PIN number while making a purchase and later in the day stole the card from the handbag of the trusting victim who had asked her to keep an eye on it while she went to the cloakroom, the court was told.

Over the next 24 hours the defendant used the card to make four cash withdrawals and a dozen other purchases for herself before the cruel trick was uncovered, added Mr Brunt.

Chana from Hobgate Road, Heath Town, who had two previous convictions for shoplifting, admitted fraud and theft and was given a six month jail sentence suspended under supervision for two years by Judge John Warner who told her:

"You have behaved in a thoroughly dishonest way. I accept that the offences at the Money Shop were committed under a certain amount of duress but the others were outright dishonesty. That was no way to deal with a friend. This is your last chance. If you offend again you will be going to prison."

The judge said he would not order Chana to pay compensation because she was already in a poor financial state and he did not want to put her in a position where she might be tempted to commit further crime.