A MAN used his former girlfriend’s bankcard to steal nearly £500 she had saved to buy a new car, a court was told.

Stephen Byrne was found guilty of five charges of fraud by false representation in his absence at Stroud Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, January 25.

The court was sent an email by a friend of the defendant two days before the hearing stating he could not attend due to illness.

But the bench rejected Byrne’s request for an adjournment and ruled that a doctor’s note signing him off work did not constitute a reasonable excuse to skip court.

Prosecutor David Nicholas called to the witness stand Byrne’s former partner Amy Robertson, who said she first realised the cash was missing after her card was declined during an attempt to top up her mobile phone credit.

Byrne, aged 32, of London Road, Thrupp, admitted taking the cash after police obtained CCTV images of him withdrawing a total of £480 from ATM machines on five occasions between June 3 – 7 last year.

He told officers Miss Robertson had given him permission to make the withdrawals – a claim she vehemently denied, adding that she been saving the cash to purchase a car.

She also revealed her suspicions that Byrne had memorised her PIN code after watching her withdraw cash from ATMs in the past.

The bench sided with the prosecution’s case, calling Miss Robertson’s evidence ‘credible and concise’ and issued a warrant for Byrne’s arrest – warning that he faces a high-level community order and a fine when he is sentenced.