A TRAVELLING salesman targeted Driffield home owners who wanted aerial photographs of their property and stole more than £3600 from their bank accounts.
Anthony Cordingley, 33, travelled from Leeds to Lowthorpe, hoping to make a killing by selling large aerial photographs of farms and detached houses, Hull Crown Court heard.
He took orders for £39 each from Woodlands House and Outgate Farm – persuading one buyer to leave the payee details blank.
Householders signed the cheques,then Cordingley change the payment amounts - in once case from £39 to £339 and in the other case to £3,339.
He banked them both and spent the lot.
None of the money has been recovered.
Crown barrister Robert Stevenson said the homeowners realised something was wrong when they saw their bank statements.
He said a combination of detection work by the homeowners and the police led to Cordingley’s arrest.
Cordingley told police he had fallen on hard times and did not know what he had spent the money on.
Cordingley, of Temple Green, Rothwell, near Leeds, appeared at court on Monday March 11 and pleaded guilty to two charges of fraud by false representation.
Both offences happened on August 8 2012.
Barrister Narrinder Radhour, mitigating, said: “These are desperate times and he resorted to desperate measures.
“He was working on a commission-only basis and it was costing him £40 a week in petrol.
“He had no initial intention to carry out this fraud, he just had both cheques in his hand at once and decided to put them in his bank account.
Recorder George Lowe, QC, told Cordingley: “Although the victims were distressed their trust had been abuse in this way the real loss here is to the banks. That is not to say the banks deserved to take the loss.”
He ordered Cordingley should complete a 12-month community order and 150-hour-unpaid work in the community.