Nail technician who stole woman's purse near Tesco, Portadown, tried to use her bank cards at a filling station, Currys and PlayStation
A 26-year-old man, who stole a woman's purse near Tesco in Portadown and tried to use her bank cards, has been given a fine at Craigavon Magistrates Court.
Madalin Varga, aged 26, from Ormonde Street, Portadown, appeared before the court on Wednesday charged with three counts of fraud by false representation and one charge of theft.
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Varga’s solicitor Mr Joe McDonald said his client has a clear record and his appearance in court arises from one incident.
The injured party called police on December 9 last year to say her purse had been stolen and there had been six attempted transactions from her debit cards across multiple locations. A £10 had also been stolen from the purse when she recovered it.
During inquiries at Bridge Street Filling Station which showed the defendant trying to use contactless payment to pay for £90 worth of fuel in his Mercedes vehicle with two different cards from the victim’s purse. Neither went through.
The injured party received notifications on her phone that these transactions were being attempted. She received another notification of an attempted transaction of £899 or thereabouts at Currys which didn’t go through.
There were three further notifications of attempts to connect bank cards to a PlayStation account and the victim declined these also. There was no monetary loss.
Mr McDonald said his client is a nail technician and father-of-one who has been living in this country for six years. He found the purse in Tesco’s car park, describing the offences as “opportunist”.
"He initially tried to contact the owner and sent her messages through Facebook but those messages didn’t actually go through to her. She never opened them.
"He had been off work for two weeks. He is very embarrassed by all this. Foolishly he tried to use the cards for petrol and the PlayStation. After he tried to use the cards he actually returned the purse to Tesco and left it there for her to collect,” said Mr McDonald.
"He is embarrassed by it. His parents are upset by his behaviour,” said Mr McDonald, offering £10 restitution.
Varga was fined £150 on each of the four charges – a global fine of £600 plus the £15 offender levy and 20 weeks to pay.