Mum-to-be who faked £8k cheque avoids jail

A MUM-TO-BE who tried to pay a fake cheque for £7,850 into her account has been ordered to complete 100 hours of community service.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard a teller at a Bank of Scotland branch became suspicious because she thought 22-year old Danielle Colvan was too young to be paying in such a large sum.

Examination under a UV light at first appeared to show the cheque was genuine, but the teller noticed that the area where the name of the company, LDN Architects, was printed was a different shade to the rest of the cheque.

After she left the bank, LDN Architects was contacted and confirmed that the numbered cheque was still in its book.

Colvan, of Gorgie Road, Edinburgh, pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain 7,850 by presenting, as genuine, the fraudulently-altered cheque at the North Bank Street branch of the Bank of Scotland on 1 July last year.

Sentence was deferred until yesterday for background reports.

Defence agent, Kenneth Cloggie, said Colvan had been given the cheque by "a friend of a friend", but she knew it was not genuine.

She had been pregnant at the time and in financial difficulties. He told Sheriff Kathrine Mackie: "She yielded to temptation."

Sheriff Mackie said that in considering the reports and what had been said, she could impose the alternative of community service.