Angry at losing his job through what he considered to be false accusations and not being paid all his wages, a Falmouth man decided to use the firm’s trade account to make up for what he thought he was owed.

At Truro’s magistrates’ court Dene Tregidgo, aged 22, of Esperanza Court, pleaded guilty to fraud by making a false representation with a trade account to obtain tools worth £452.99 on October 18 at Truro.

Alison May, for the CPS, said Tregidgo had been sacked from his employment at Scorrier Vehicle Sales and had then obtained the tools by putting them on the company’s trade account. He had a number of previous convictions.

Dieter Kehler, his solicitor, said he was a man with poor thinking skills. He had felt hard done by his previous employers but did not know about employment tribunals and thought the way out was to obtain items on their account to make up for what he was owed.

District Judge David Parsons told Tregidgo he had been in court many times for offences of dishonesty and on each occasion dealt with by community penalties which had obviously failed.

Tregidgo was given a ten-week prison sentence suspended for a year, a 12 month supervision order, with a requirement for a thinking skills programme, and told to pay compensation of £200.