THREE women went on a shopping spree in Oxford paying for goods with a cheque book from a closed account, Oxford Crown Court heard.

Carol Duff, 31, of Hawthorn Road, High Wycombe, Claire Fifield, 22, and Marlene Morris, 39, both from Greenhill Gate, High Wycombe, deny conspiring to obtain £285 by deception in May last year.

Basil Hillman, prosecuting, said the women used a cheque book belonging to Fifield to make their purchases.

The Yorkshire Bank account was opened in 1994 but did not have any money in it, did not have an agreed overdraft and was closed.

"No cheques drawn on that account would have been honoured," Mr Hillman said. "Visits were made to the stores, goods were chosen and taken away in return for worthless cheques."

The women were all recorded by in-store video cameras. Forensic tests later showed Duff, of Hawthorn Road, Micklefield, High Wycombe, had written out the cheques using Fifield's signature and using one of her credit cards as proof of identity, Mr Hillman alleged.

He added: "The Crown suggests that in due course a false report would have been made saying that the cheque book had been stolen.

"The signatures, if checked, would have been shown not to have been Claire Fifield's." When met by police on their return to Greenhill Gate, Green Hill, High Wycombe, where Morris and Fifield live, the women were questioned separately. Morris disappeared for a short while and when an officer checked where she had been he found a ripped up receipt for Sainsburys, issued that day.

Police also found a torn page from a magazine bearing Fifield's signature, which Mr Hillman alleged Morris had been practising.

The case continues.

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