A WALLASEY mother wept as she was jailed for ten months for using stolen cheques.

Judge Denis Clark told 32-year-old Beverley Ferns that men who used such women as 'foot soldiers' to obtain goods with stolen cheques and cards wrongly assured them they would not be sent to prison.

"They give them a guarantee that the judge will not be able to look them in the face as they stand sobbing in the dock and send them to jail but that is not so," he said.

Ferns, of New Street, had pleaded guilty to six offences involving handling stolen cheque books and using them to obtain property. She had 137 similar offences taken into consideration.

Mr Zia Chaudry, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that Ferns went on a two-month spending spree with the cheques from ten stolen books and acquired property worth about £6,000.

Defence counsel Mr Philip Hall said that Ferns, who has a previous similar conviction, had been approached by a man to use the cheques.

She used them to obtain necessities and luxuries and kept the necessities for herself as she was in financial straits and suffering from depression.

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