A MAN accused of using cloned credit cards to buy a watch worth more than £3,000 failed to appear in court because his son was in hospital.

Wilfred Yumah is accused of using the fake cards to get the watch from a town centre jewellers almost a year ago.

The 29-year-old is also said to have tried to get other items with the cards and also possessing them with intent to commit crime.

But a judge sitting at Swindon Crown Court was told that he was in the Great Western Hospital with his child.

Martin Wiggins, defending, said his client’s five-year-old son was being treated for a broken collar bone.

“Mr Yumah has contacted us to say he has had to stay with his little boy,” he said.

Judge Douglas Field adjourned the case to April 15 and issued a warrant with bail to secure his attendance.

Yumah, who gave the court an address in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, faces three counts of fraud and two of possessing an article for the use in fraud. It is alleged he obtained a watch worth £3,020 from Ernest Jones Jewellers, in Regent Street, on April 29 last year.

On the same day he is also accused of trying to get a watch from the same shop and gift cards from nearby HMV.

He is also charged with having cloned HSBC and Citi Bank credit cards for use in fraud.