A MAN who fraudulently used his elderly neighbour's bank cards while he was in hospital has been jailed.

Nicholas Leslie Birch, of Bath Road in Bournemouth, was sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court on Thursday, December 6, after pleading guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation and one count of handling stolen goods.

The 51-year-old was jailed for a total of 13 months.

On Saturday, September 29, the victim – a man aged in his 70s – was rushed to hospital by ambulance due to illness. The front gate which leads to the victim’s address in St Mary’s Road was unintentionally left unlocked.

The previous day the victim had arranged for Birch, his then neighbour, who he knew as ‘Wayne’, to carry out some paid gardening work. ‘Wayne’ carried out this work on the Friday and was due to return the following day.

While he was in hospital the victim asked a friend to visit his home and shut the gate. The friend noticed the victim’s bedroom window was open, and the window in the dining room was shut but the handle was facing up, as if it had been closed from the outside.

Approximately a week later, once released from hospital, the victim noticed that a bottle of medicine, his wallet and three watches were missing.

On Tuesday, October 9, the victim went to a supermarket in Bournemouth to print out a bank receipt and discovered that £250 had been withdrawn on Monday, October 1, but not by him. Subsequent enquiries revealed that two other attempts had been made to withdraw cash, which were unsuccessful.

The victim suspected that ‘Wayne’ was involved and challenged him.

CCTV enquiries were carried out and on Tuesday, October 23, a detective identified the man in the CCTV footage from the withdrawals as Nicholas Birch. He was arrested on Thursday, November 1, and subsequently charged.

Detective Constable Liam Moss, of Dorset Police’s Priority Crime Team, said: “Nicholas Birch befriended his victim and took advantage of him while he was being treated in hospital following an illness for his own financial gain."