Man fined over £4k cheque fraud attempt

A MAN who tried to cash a cheque made out in his name for more than £4000 was foiled when a city bank teller became suspicious, a court heard.

The cheque was later found to be from a missing cheque book.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday, 26-year old Colin Peacock was fined 500 by Sheriff Frank Crowe, who said the whole scheme had been doomed to failure.

Peacock, of Glencairn Drive, Moodiesburn, had pleaded guilty previously to attempting to obtain 4360.23 from the branch of Halifax Bank of Scotland on The Mound in Edinburgh on September 22 last year.

Sentence had been deferred for background reports on Peacock, a first offender.

Peacock told police someone called "Ash" had offered him 500 to cash the cheque.

Sheriff Crowe said: "We hear of these cases quite regularly where someone uses a person we used to call a patsy to do their dirty work".