AN 'accomplished fraudster' who was told 'This is your last chance' when she appeared before a judge earlier this year has been spared jail again.

Victoria Grieve assured the court there were no other offences in the pipeline when she was put on a second suspended sentence in February.

But just a couple of days earlier she came within minutes of buying a car using the bank details of a woman she met in a clinic where she was as part of her sentence.

And the 21-year-old had also fleeced a former boyfriend and his brother out of almost £1,000 by again setting up catalogue accounts in their names.

Now, for the third time in six months, Judge Tim Mousley QC, sitting at Swindon Crown Court, has decided not to imposed a jail term for her repeated fraud.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, said Grieve was first put on a suspended sentence last October for 50 frauds against her flatmate, dad, boyfriend and workmates, including trying to buy a car.

She was then brought back to court in February because in the weeks around the earlier appearance, she had been using her gran's credit card without permission.

At that hearing the judge asked 'Has she come clean about everything?' and was assured that she had.

Miss Marlow said a week earlier she went to CB Autos in Barnfield Road and tried to buy a second hand Mini for £2,795, paying by credit card over the phone.

The salesman was suspicious he put her name into Google and found she had a string of convictions for fraud.

When she came to pick up the car he asked to see the card, which she said she didn't have on her but showed him a photocopy and said she could bring it a week later.

The police were called in and it was found that she had used the bank details of a neighbour at a residential unit in Kent where she was being treated for her problems.

And it was found she had also been using the bank details for a series of cab rides and to get herself a hotel room.

Miss Marlow said in the two weeks running up to Christmas her on-off boyfriend Liam Jones kept getting messages saying deliveries had been left outside his home.

Because she had fleeced him before he confronted Grieve and she was assuring him she had done nothing wrong, but as she did so she received a message on her phone from very.co.uk in his name.

She was questioned by the police and admitted running up £900 in his name and £97 in an account in the name of his brother Matthew.

Grieve, of Bradenham Road, Grange Park, pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and breaching a suspended sentence.

Paul Trotman, defending, initially said the court had been made aware of the new offences before her last sentence, but accepted that was not the case after hearing a recording of it.

He said that since she was before the judge in February she had not committed any more offences and was finally engaging with services to help her.

She had already done more than half of the 200 hours of unpaid work and was getting help from her GP and also paying for counselling.

He handed the court a letter from Liam Jones and said she also had a reference from a woman she babysat for.

Passing sentence the judge said: "I described you as an accomplished fraudster. Everything I have heard today confirms that that was what you were at that stage.

"You could have been a bit more frank about your position when you were asked a question from me. Your lack of frankness does you no favours.

"Your lack of frankness shows the way you were dishonest in almost every facet of your life at the time leading up to the suspended sentence being imposed."

Adding 150 hours of unpaid work he told her he had to consider what she had been doing since he imposed the order in February.

"I hope you have realised today that, try as you will not to be found out, eventually you will be found out, and the court's going to keep an eye on you," said the judge.

"If I were to come to the conclusion in the next 18 months that you were breaching these orders, trying to hoodwink everybody, then you will go straight to prison."