Teenager stole £10k from grandparents

Ashwin Midha took a total of £10,811 between January 21 and April 25 this year, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The 19-year-old, of Bader Road, Perton, was found out when his his grandmother received a bank statement from TSB on March 19. She saw a number of cheques had been cashed which neither she or her husband were aware of.

The court was told she had not been able to act straight away due to her husband being ill but had eventually gone into the bank to question the transactions.

When they asked for the information, the cheques were found to be made out in their grandson's name and had been cashed at a branch of Natwest in Wolverhampton. The court was told the couple had also received a letter from Barclays Bank on April 25 notifying them there were insufficient funds in the account to clear a cheque for £3,200. Further investigations revealed cash had also been taken out of this account for sums of £800 and £11.

Midha pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud by misrepresentation to make a gain and one count of attempted fraud by misrepresentation to make a gain.

He was sentenced to 36 weeks in a young offenders institution suspended for two years, placed under a curfew between 9pm and 7am and ordered to carry out 180 hours unpaid work.

Mrs Sati Ruck, prosecuting, said: "The victims in this case were the defendant's own grandparents.

"The amounts were taken out of the account over a prolonged period.

"His grandmother says her grandson needs help and feels a curfew would be an appropriate sentence. They felt there was no choice but to report what had happened to the police."

Miss Kate Thomas, defending, said her client had 'psychological issues' after his father left at the age of 13.

"All of his family see he has a problem stemming from this but unfortunately he himself does not," she said.