An unemployed builder, who tried to pretend he was still in work by running up bills on credit cards, has been jailed by a judge.

Bradford Crown Court heard how 46-year-old Walter Wray could not face telling his common-law wife that he would no longer be able to work because of a knee injury.

In November 1995 Wray, of Knowles Lane, Holme Wood, Bradford, obtained a credit card in his partner's name, without her knowledge, and began using it to withdraw cash. Over a three-year period Wray used fictitious names to obtain a further three credit cards and ran up bills totalling £8,808.

His barrister, Guy Kearl, said the money had not been spent on high living and the offending worked out at effectively £50 a week.

"He could not bring himself to tell his partner that he couldn't work any more and there was to be no more money coming in,'' he said.

"He actually went out each day and wandered around.''

Wray pleaded guilty to four offences of obtaining credit cards by deception and four offences of theft.

He also asked for offences of attempting to obtain a credit card by deception and attempting to claim redundancy insurance payments by deception to be taken into consideration.

When Wray was arrested in September last year he made full admissions and explained that he had been using the cards to support the pretence that he was still working.

Jailing him for 140 days, Judge Roger Scott said it had to be a custodial sentence because the offending involved a whole series of transactions over a long period of time.

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