WHEN Anthony Pattison took delivery of a £700 television he did not realise that one of the delivery men was a police officer. And both Pattison and the man who called at his Great Harwood home an hour later to collect the set were arrested by police who had kept the house under observation.
Pattison, 20, of Railway Terrace, Great Harwood, pleaded guilty to obtaining the television by deception from the Panasonic Centre on Northgate, Blackburn. He was fined £200 with £118 costs.
Neil Standage, prosecuting, said the shop received a telephone order and credit card payment for the television but the sales assistant was suspicious of the telephone number, which he recognised from a previous occasion when they had been defrauded. The police were informed and officers were part of the delivery team that went to Pattison's. He said he was authorised to take delivery of the set and introduced himself as Mr O'Brien.
Mr Standage said the man who collected the television an hour later had been arrested but not charged as it was accepted that he was no more than a delivery driver. "No one other than Pattison has been charged although someone else is being sought by the police," he added.
Alfred Rebello, defending, said that Pattison had told the police everything he knew about the incident. He said that a couple of lads had been asking Pattison to take delivery of a television and he had said no on three or four occasions and told them to go away.
"Eventually he gave in, in a moment of weakness, and he bitterly regrets his foolishness in getting involved," said Mr Rebello.
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