Woman used stolen bank card to swipe £200 from ATM

Addict is spared prison

A Perth woman, said to be “standing on the precipice” of a prison sentence, used a stolen bank card to take £200 from a supermarket cash machine.

But 21-year-old Connie Furlong, of Imrie Place, was spared jail this week – and instead is to be given help with her drug difficulties.

She will also be restricted to her home for 12 hours a day for the next six months.

Perth Sheriff Court was told that she and a former co-accused had been drinking at the home of a self-confessed alcoholic in Victoria Street.

That person had just got a new bank card and kept his PIN number on a piece of paper.

Unknown to him, his card was taken and then used to plunder £200 from his account at the RBS cashline machine outside Morrison’s supermarket.

Depute fiscal Carol Whyte said the transaction was captured on CCTV and she was later traced by police.

Furlong, who is at present subject to a Community Payback Order, admitted resetting the bank card at the city centre flat on February 3 this year.

She also pled guilty, while acting with others, to stealing the cash from the Caledonian Road cash machine the same day.

A not guilty plea to a charge of stealing the card from the flat was accepted on behalf of Ann Black (44), of Dunkeld Road, Perth.

Solicitor Paul Ralph said that although his client hadn’t taken the card, she had landed herself in “very deep water” because of her subsequent actions.

Passing sentence, Sheriff Gillian Wade told her the charges would “merit a custodial sentence” on their own. But added: “But that wouldn’t address the long-term problems you have.”

She imposed a Community Payback Order and ordered that she undergo drug treatment, adding: “I’m not satisfied you are going to address your drug problems on your own, despite the fact that you say you will.

“That’s the root of your offending – and you know that.”

Furlong will be supervised for the next 18 months and a Restriction of Liberty Order was also imposed, limiting her to her home from 7pm until 7am, seven days a week.

Her progress on the orders will be reviewed on May 17.