A FRAUDSTER used a cloned American Express card to buy a designer watch - then claimed he was a film-maker researching such crimes.

Thomas Birbeck, 28, went into jewellers' in York and Harrogate to buy “high-value items”.

Birbeck was arrested after CCTV footage at Bradleys Jewellers in Stonegate showed him using a cloned card.

He was charged with two counts of fraud, along with a co-accused. He initially entered unequivocal guilty pleas, but later claimed he used the cloned card as part of research for a documentary on card crime.

At York Crown Court, his barrister Helen Chapman applied to vacate and qualify Birbeck’s guilty pleas. She said Birbeck failed to tell his previous solicitors he was a freelance documentary-maker.

York Press:

Ms Chapman asked Judge Paul Batty to accept the caveat, but he dismissed the application. He said Birbeck, of Teignmouth, Torquay, would be sentenced on the basis that it was fraud pure and simple.

Ms Chapman said: “His ambition is to be a documentary-maker and that was more important (to him) than the charges, which he now bitterly regrets. The defendant says he became involved in this documentary because he intended to make a (film) about this type of crime.”

Ms Chapman said Birbeck had waited so long to try to change his plea because he was scared of jeopardising the TV production and his career.

The court heard that following the frauds on December 12, 2014, Birbeck “perhaps arrogantly, or through naivety” thought he could sweep the charges aside. A probation report said Birbeck had fallen behind with rent payments and owed about £2,000.

Mr Batty said that notwithstanding Birbeck’s claims that he was carrying out research for a fraud expose, he had “a hand in this (fraudulent) activity himself”.

The judge said Birbeck’s application came "nowhere near establishing the appropriate test" to persuade the court to allow him to vacate his plea.

He said he would be sentenced on October 13, on the basis of his initial pleas, and said jail was a possibility.