A serial fraudster who cheated dozens of hotels and B&Bs out of thousands of pounds worth of food and accommodation was jailed in the Highlands yesterday.
Helen Ogden’s trail of trickery stretched from the north of England and throughout Scotland, the court was told.
Ogden appeared from custody at Fort William Sheriff Court and admitted falsely obtaining board, food and drink to the value of £1,349.80 from the Nevis Bank Hotel, Fort William, the Duke of Gordon Hotel in Kingussie, and the Chieftain Hotel in Inverness between December 27, 2012, and January 17, 2013.
Her not guilty plea to defrauding the Eden Guest House in Inverness was accepted by the fiscal Laura Ryan.
Ogden, 29, duped the Nevis Bank Hotel by claiming to be a solicitor working at the local courthouse.
But she was rumbled when a staff member phoned the practice she claimed to work for and the receptionist said she had never heard of her.
The court heard Ogden wove a web of lies to back up her false identities, which included claiming to be a children’s author and a heart surgeon, by sending e-mails purporting to be from her employers to hotels in advance of her arrival.
The areas in Scotland she targeted in her previous sprees included Aberdeen, Inverurie, Banff, Nairn, Elgin, Wick, Skye, Harris, Stornoway, Garve, St Combs, Carnoustie, Peterhead, Forres and St Andrews.
The mother-of-one carried out the latest crimes immediately after being released from an eight-month prison sentence imposed at Stornoway Sheriff Court in August 2012 after she admitted cheating 24 hotels out of £10,300 worth of accommodation and food.
She was also jailed for 28 days at Perth Sheriff Court last Thursday and will appear in Oban Sheriff Court today on other similar charges.
Honorary Sheriff Hector MacLean yesterday jailed Ogden, from Manchester, for 30 days for her latest free board and lodgings spree.
Defence solicitor Hamish Melrose said Ogden is already serving a 16-month sentence from Teesside Magistrates Court after admitting 26 charges of fraud and theft amounting to about £4,500 and will not serve any extra time.
Her sentences from Fort William and Perth are to run concurrently to this and she is due to be released in January.
Mr Melrose told the court Ogden lost her job as an aircraft dispatcher at Manchester Airport in 2011 and, after falling into debt, “spent months travelling around the north of England and Scotland”.
He said: “She basically became homeless because she fell out with her parents.”
Ogden has been in jail since May 27 and gave birth to her first child, who is in temporary foster care, on July 1.