FINGERPRINTS on a Bournemouth boutique’s till receipt led police to a fraudster who used a cloned credit card to splash out on designer clothes.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard how cash-strapped Kensey Wright, 49, had targeted Eirens of London on Seamoor Road twice.

Prosecutor Heather Shimmen said Wright had used the bogus card to pay for a black leather jacket costing £999, adding: “He produced the card as payment; it was rejected and then to talked a member of staff into giving him the chip and pin machine. He appeared to enter a code to allow the machine to authorise payment with a signature.”

When Wright from Crawley, West Sussex, returned on February 14 last year he used the same method to purchase another £999 jacket.

It was only when the shop owner checked her bank statement and the legitimate card owner scanned his statement that they realised they had both been victims of fraud.

Ms Shimmen said till receipts had been seized by police and fingerprints found matched Wright’s.

He was arrested and described the allegations as “nonsense” during an interview at Bournemouth police station on September 9. But he later pleaded guilty to two offences of fraud after being identified by the two shop assistants he had conned.

In Wright’s defence, the court heard that he had been on benefits and did not have enough money to “sustain himself”.

He needed his liberty to look after his partner, who suffers from a muscle-wasting disease, and apologised to the court for his behaviour.

Imposing a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, Judge Samuel Wiggs described the offences as “very deliberate fraud,” telling Wright: “You knew exactly what you were doing.”

Wright was ordered to pay £500 compensation to Eirens of London.