Hartlepool fraudster gave false names eight times to hire £11,000 worth of tools from Travis Perkins

Simon Calvert, 27, gave a false name eight times to make off with tools from different branches of Travis Perkins which he did not return.

Teesside Magistrates’ Court heard he carried out the fraud after being fired from a Hartlepool ramp firm and he fell into debt.

Jeff Taylor, prosecuting, said: “The company had an arrangement with a tool hire company and that hire company has a number of branches.

“As a consequence he attended four of those branches of Travis Perkins over a period of time.”

Calvert gave the names of four other people on eight occasions when signing for the hire of the tools.

Mr Taylor added: “Tools are hired out to him and those tools are not returned.”

After suspicions were raised, a member of staff from the ramp company visited Travis Perkins and identified Calvert from CCTV.

He admitted what he had done when he was arrested.

Mr Taylor said: “He tells the police he found himself in a significant amount of debt and has had some issues with the use of cocaine which may give some clue as to where the problems have been.”

Calvert, of Fox Covert, Dalton Piercy, pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation between April 7 and 16 of this year.

The total value of the tools involved was £11,204.21.

He also asked for a similar offence to be taken into account when he falsely hired out £1,600 of tools from Travis Perkins in Durham on April 12.

The court heard he has no relevant previous convictions.

The magistrates sent the case to Teesside Crown Court as they felt the value of the tools involved were beyond their sentencing powers.

Chairman of the bench Keith Prior said: “We believe this is outside the constraints of this court, so we’re going to refer the case to the crown court for sentencing.”

They ordered a pre-sentence report to be prepared and Calvert was granted unconditional bail to attend the crown court on a date to be fixed.