A woman was to be paid £1,000 for using a forged passport and a utility bill to open as many accounts as possible in a false name at banks in Coventry.
But mother-of-two Tatiana Tehe escaped being jailed after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing a false identity document with improper intent and fraud.
Tehe (27) of Pearson Avenue, Bell Green, Coventry, was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for two years, with a rehabilitation activity and 150 hours of unpaid work.
Prosecutor Madhu Rai said Tehe, posing as a woman called Stephanie Williams, went into the HSBC in Corporation Street, Coventry, on February 16 and asked to open personal and business accounts.
She was asked for identity documents, and handed over a UK passport in the name of Stephanie Williams and a water utility bill in the same name.
But when a member of the bank staff checked the passport, she noticed the hologram on the identity page was not glowing, which made her suspect it was forged.
So she informed the manager who contacted the police, and Tehe was arrested.
She was asked whether the passport was hers and whether Stephanie Williams was her name, and at first replied yes – but after further enquiries, she was asked again and answered no.
And in her handbag were a number of documents relating to bank cards in other names, pointed out Miss Rai.
When she was interviewed, Tehe, who gave her nationality in court as French, explained that she was desperate for money to send it to her grandmother.
She said the passport and bill had been given to her with instructions to open as many bank accounts as she could with them, in return for which she was to be paid £1,000.
Sentencing Tehe, Judge Anthony Potter told her: “You intended to open a bank account using someone else’s identity in a bid to make money for other people.
“You provided not just a passport in the name of Stephanie Williams, but a utility bill to back up your application not only for a personal account but also a business account.
“You knew the people who were asking you to do this were going to defraud people, to use it as a scam, and you were willing to assist them.
“Fortunately the bank realised the passport was false, and there were other documents and other cards, apparently with a view to committing similar offences.
“The guideline is that after a trial a sentence of 12-18 months is appropriate to act as a deterrent.
“But you are 27 years of age, you have been in this country for some eight years, and it seems from what I have read you have lived a largely productive life and have involved yourself in the local church community and assisted others.
“You have two children, and you have made arrangements [for them] because you have recognised there is every prospect that you will not be going home, and I give you credit for that.”
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