Walsall fraudster paid for £7,600 spending spree on GP's credit cards

Jun 28 2009 by Jeanette Oldham, Sunday Mercury

MOST people would consider breakfast in bed an extravagance in a hotel.

But for Jaspreet Gill room service consisted of 16 computers, two laptops and a couple of mobile phones.

The 23 year-old booked herself into the luxurious Fairlawns Hotel and Spa in Walsall after conning a local doctor out of his credit card details.

She then went on a £7,600 spending spree, ordering a string of expensive items over the phone and getting them sent direct to the venue. But hotel staff became suspicious when so many boxes of high-priced goods were delivered and contacted the police.

Gill, of Redbridge Road, Walsall, pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud by false representation at Wolverhampton Crown Court on June 2.

She was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing tomorrow.

Gill’s extraordinary spending spree began after she phoned a local doctor’s surgery posing as a British Telecom official and persuaded a practice manager to give her his credit card details.

The manager read out the card numbers after the brazen conwoman threatened to cut off the medic’s phoneline. The suspicious employee did later contact BT to query the call and was told the doctor’s account was not in debt.

But by then Gill was already installed at the Fairlawns Hotel in Little Aston Road, Aldridge, where junior suites start from £120. The hotel boasts a beauty spa, swimming pool, sauna, Jacuzzi and gym and its most luxurious rooms can cost up to £180 per night.

Gill had checked in on September 7 last year and almost immediately began ordering goods over the phone, listing the delivery address as the hotel. Her shopping transactions included:

l 12 computers costing £5,500;

l two mobile phones valued at £620;

l And another four computers priced at £1,500.

Gill had only stayed one night but cheekily popped back to the hotel on several occasions during September and October to collect her deliveries from bemused staff, who eventually called in police. After her arrest it emerged the unemployed conwoman had committed the offences while serving a 10-month suspended jail term.

She had been handed that sentence, along with 150 hours’ community punishment, at Wolverhampton Crown Court in February last year.

That hearing had been told how she had pocketed nearly £2,000 by selling non-existent goods on eBay to fund a drug habit.