A man has been sentenced after secretly using his partner's credit card to fund a series of affairs, a court heard. Robert Beswick, 37, abused the trust of his partner, a serving police officer, by making unauthorised purchases and changing her banking details.
Abuse of trust
Swansea Crown Court heard that the victim, a police constable, took out two credit cards to help Beswick pay off his debts. The cards had an "extortionate" rate of interest on new purchases and were intended solely to hold the debts and allow him to make regular repayments. Because she trusted him, he was given account details.
The court heard that the victim and Beswick met in 2015 and began a decade-long relationship. The prosecutor, Dean Pulling, said the officer had a "steady and comfortable income" while Beswick regularly moved between jobs, had periods of unemployment, and "relied heavily" on his partner financially.
Secret purchases
In January last year, the victim discovered Beswick had been having "long-term affairs" and ended the relationship. However, he was still allowed access to the cards to continue paying off his debt. Days later, the victim tried to log into her Barclays account but found her password no longer worked. She contacted the bank and discovered Beswick had changed it.
A week later, NatWest contacted her to say her address details had been changed. She found out Beswick had been using his access to make unauthorised changes. The day after the NatWest incident, a Capital One credit card in Beswick's name arrived at her address. He had used her income details to bypass his poor credit rating.
Financial and emotional impact
After a string of requests to Barclays, the victim regained access to her account and found purchases totalling more than £1,000 over the previous 12 months, including hotel stays, train journeys, restaurant meals, an engagement ring, and an "adult sex toy". Beswick then stopped making repayments, leaving his ex-partner to pick up the pieces.
In an impact statement read to the court, the victim said she felt manipulated, vulnerable, and deeply upset. She said: "This was a theft not just of money but a theft of my identity, trust and security." She also said Beswick had hidden a previous burglary conviction from her.
Sentence
Beswick, of Richmond Terrace, Carmarthen, pleaded guilty to fraud on the day of trial. He had one previous conviction for burglary from May 2015. His barrister, Emily Bennett, accepted the offending crossed the custody threshold and invited the court to pass a suspended sentence.
Recorder Christian Jowett noted the parties had "very different financial circumstances" and that Beswick had used his access to make unauthorised purchases. With a 10% discount for his guilty plea, Beswick was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for 18 months, plus 200 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation programme. He was also made subject to a restraining order banning him from contacting his ex or going to her place of work for five years.
