Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Fraudsters travelled Scotland buying cars and pedigree dogs with forged cheques

William Stewart (left) and Ronald Saunders (right)
William Stewart (left) and Ronald Saunders (right)

A pair of fraudsters who roamed Scotland buying cars and pedigree dogs with phony cheques in a £25,000 fraud were today behind bars.

Ronald Saunders and William Stewart used cheques from Mr Stewart’s brother’s chequebook to buy a succession of vehicles – before Stewart then handed over a £800 cheque to buy a chihuahua from a breeder.

But the cheques all bounced – leaving the owners between £750 and £7000 out of pocket.

The pair’s scam traversed the north and east of Scotland – with frauds carried out in Forfar, Dundee, Aberdeen, Muir of Ord in the Highlands, Fraserburgh, Inverness, St Andrews and Kinross.

Fiscal depute Vicki Bell told Dundee Sheriff Court: “This case relates to each accused travelling separately around Scotland presenting fraudulent cheques from a chequebook which did not belong to them, in exchange for motor vehicles and a dog.

“The cheques were not honoured by the bank for two reasons.

“First, there were not sufficient funds to cover the amounts of the cheques and second that the chequebook had been cancelled as a result of the brother reporting it as lost.

“He had received a visit from his brother and realised after he had left that his cheque book was missing.

“In terms of accused Saunders there was no recovery of the motor vehicles, which were valued between £750 and £4,995 – a total of £8,945.

“The private owners of these cars had advertised them for sale on the internet and received a call from a male who offered to buy the car.

“Soon after Saunders would arrive with a cheque already written out, and the cheques would subsequently be returned by the bank unpaid.

“Accused Stewart used the cheques to buy cars valued between £970 and £7000 – totalling £15,920.

“He also bought a dog – a chihuahua – for £800.

“Some of these were from private sellers on the internet and others were from motor traders.

“He pretended to be Mr D A Stewart – his brother’s name – and presented cheques in that name which were unpaid by the bank.”

Saunders, 57, of Balmoral Gardens, Dundee, and Stewart, 54, a prisoner at HMP Perth, pleaded guilty on indictment to charges of forming a fraudulent scheme.

Sheriff Alistair Brown jailed Saunders for 20 months and Stewart for 34 months.

He said: “Each of you embarked on a deliberate and persistent course of fraud.

“Each of you caused loss to the people involved.

“I don’t know their financial situations but you took a significant asset from them with utter disregard to that, purely for your own gain.

“Those who embark on a fraudulent scheme of this scale must expect ot be treated very seriously by the court.

“And those who cheat hard-working member of the public can expect no sympathy.”