An unemployed mother who drove a Porsche was spare

An unemployed mother who drove a Porsche was spared jail today after she cheated Harrods and John Lewis out of thousands of pounds in a crooked spending spree.

Behnaz Khoram-Rad, 33, was followed to the car park of John Lewis in Watford after she took back goods bought on a stolen credit card.

Staff saw the single mother who is on invalidity benefit, getting into a brand-new silver Porsche Boxster with the personalised number K55 RAD on July 20 last year.

She had just cheated the store out of goods worth pnds stlg 283 when she left the store, Blackfriars Crown Court heard.

When arrested Iranian born Khoram-Rad, who is a British national, gave a false address and name.

Prosecutor Ian Wade said that the defendant had been recognised visiting the store on several previous occasions.

‘Police officers stopped the Porsche when it was leaving the car park.

‘In the boot were a number of shopping bags apparently from a number of prestigious stores and many high value items within.

‘I cannot suggest they are not legitimate purchases,’ Mr Wade said.

Khoram-Rad was carrying two bogus credit cards that had been used to rack up debts of nearly 4,000 – although the prosecution said they could not show that she had used them.

While on bail in September she started cheating again, the court heard.

She opened a store card account under the false name of Teresa Sousa.

Then between September 7 and October 7, 2002 she cheated Harrods on 21 occasions by buying goods worth a total of pnds stlg 4,905.

She would top the account up using numbers from stolen credit cards, the court heard.

When she was arrested she was carrying a different pair of stolen credit cards – one that had been intercepted in the post in the USA.

Paul Raudwitz, defending, said that his client had a young son who she had not told she was in prison.

‘She telephones him from Holloway prison and tells him she is in Iran,’ Mr Raudwitz said.

Ironically, Khoram-Rad worked as the credit controller of the Royal Garden Hotel at Hyde Park for four years, the court heard.

‘She was responsible for finance and credit,’ he said.

The court heardthe time she has spent in custody is equivalent to a four-and-a-half month sentence already.

Khoram-Rad admitted possessing two false instruments – the stolen credit cards – and obtaining property by deception relating to John Lewis at Watford.

She had been found guilty at a nine day trial at Blackfriars Crown Court earlier this year of 21 counts of obtaining property by deception and two counts of having false instruments.

At her trial she claimed CCTV evidence of her using the bogus Harrods storecard must have been her sister who looks like her

Sentencing, the judge Mr Recorder Malcom Fortune told her: You were convicted on overwhelming evidence.

‘You had your own Harrods account with your own charge card and you used that card for your own gain.

‘It will come as no surprise to you that I have agonised over the penalty I should impose.

‘

‘You richly deserve a sentence of imprisonment.

‘

But recent guidelines from the Court of Appeal persuaded him to give her a two year community punishment and rehabilitation order, he said.

Khoram-Rad, of 40 Cornwell Gardens, South Kensington will have to carry out 80 hours unpaid work and also attend 22 sessions of a course called ‘Think First’ which will train her to consider the consequences of her actions.

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