A Chester man who defrauded a woman out of more than £20,000 is to be sentenced next month.

Previously we reported 29-year-old Thomas Mark Leatherbarrow, from Sumner Road, had been summonsed to court to face charges of fraud.

At Chester Crown Court on Monday, October 7, Leatherbarrow pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud, with the offences happening between July 2017 and May 2022 in Chester.

For one of the offences, Leatherbarrow had taken the woman's credit card and used it to carry out about 89 transactions collectively valued at £3,186, and obtained a further credit card in her name without consent to gain a further £5,000, plus a further credit card in September 2020.

He also used the woman's debit cards to spend £14,895 in 108 transactions.

The court heard Leatherbarrow had also accessed the woman's ISA account to transfer £2,620 to his own account.

When the victim suspected money was being stolen from her accounts, she tried to report the issue.

But Leatherbarrow created a fake email address – Financial-OmbudsmanServices@hotmail.com – to pose as a representative of the professional organisation, so he could throw her off the scent and continue to steal from her accounts.

Leatherbarrow was placed on conditional bail, not to contact the victim in the case, for a pre-sentence report to be prepared. He will be sentenced at Chester Crown Court on November 21.