A FRAUDSTER stole the identities of her new boyfriend and his estranged wife as she cheated her way to more than £21,500, York Crown Court heard.

Makala Ann Dorman, 35, got details of the married couple’s joint account and her boyfriend’s business account by claiming she would lend him £2,000, said David Hall, prosecuting.

Instead, she emptied the accounts as she stole £700.

Then she used details she found in the marital home to get loans and credit cards from several different banks and banking societies in the married couple’s names. When police questioned her, she blamed two other people for some of the crimes, said Mr Hall.

For Dorman, barrister Felicity Hemlin said Dorman and the boyfriend were still in a relationship and sending her to jail would mean he would lose his home.

Dorman, of Parkland Way, Haxby, pleaded guilty to nine charges of fraud and six of theft.

Two more charges of fraud and six of theft were left on file, which means they appear on her criminal record but are not convictions.

Judge Simon Hickey said she had “breached the trust” of the boyfriend.

He gave her a 16-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months on condition she does 80 hours’ unpaid work and five days’ rehabilitative activities.

He also made a nominal confiscation order of £1 after the prosecution told him she didn’t have any assets but her frauds and thefts had netted her £21,550.

Ms Hemlin said when she committed the frauds and thefts, Dorman was “gambling excessively and taking drugs and addicted to both”.

Since then she had stopped gambling and was no longer taking drugs. She had secured a full-time job after the pandemic affected her original job.

“She is not the same person who committed these offences in 2017,” said Ms Hemlin.

Mr Hall said the boyfriend’s marriage was breaking down in 2015 and his wife moved to York leaving him alone in the marital home in Knaresborough.

He began a relationship with Dorman that led to her moving into the marital home.

By the time the married couple discovered Dorman’s crimes, she had obtained £21,550.