Forged signature in attempt to get loan

A 31-year-old woman forged the signature of a lady she had been in a relationship with in an attempt to obtain a loan, Craigavon Magistrates Court heard last Friday.

Coleen Irving, whose address was given as Swan Place, Colne, Lancashire, was sentenced for fraud and motoring offences.

She was charged that on September 20, 2013, she made a false representation that the electronic signature of a female on an application to Amigo Loans was genuine.

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Irving also admitted that on a date unknown between September 19 and October 2, 2013, she had in her possession a mortgage statement purporting to come from Lloyds for use in the course of a fraud.

She pleaded guilty to driving without a licence or insurance on September 24, 2013, and again on October 1, 2013 at Maghaberry Road.

For the two fraud charges she was sentenced to three months in prison suspended for one year.

Fines totalling £250 and a four month driving ban were imposed for the no licence offences.

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The defendant was also ordered to pay a £15 offender’s levy.

She was sentenced to a total of three months in custody, suspended for a year, for the no insurance charges and banned from driving for a total of nine months.

The case had been adjourned from a previous court in order to obtain a pre-sentence report.

A prosecutor said that a woman made an allegation to police that the defendant had used her name as guarantor for a loan without her knowledge.

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The loan company had contacted the woman and she told them she had no knowledge of the loan.

The company then suspected the mortgage statement was false.

Defence barrister Conor Lunny said that taken together the offences were serious and they were clearly a breach of trust.

He explained that the defendant had been in a long term relationship with the lady whose signature she had forged.

Mr Lunny added that Irving had a gambling addiction but she seemed to have got back on track and had spent six months in an institution in Herefordshire.

There was nothing else pending against her.