A MAN covered himself in blood and faked being stabbed to scam women into giving him cash, a court heard

Andrew Lawson, 41, was caught on CCTV emptying a syringe of blood over his hand before approaching a lone female in the Feethams car park in Darlington, claiming a gang of youths had stabbed him with a screwdriver.

He told her his bike was stolen in the attack and he needed money to get home.

Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court heard that the scam artist targeted at least three women and was successful in getting two of them to give him money.

John Garside, prosecuting, said: “At around 10pm, on February 17, a woman was walking to the car park at Feethams when she was approached by the defendant. He was earlier caught on CCTV applying blood to his left hand using a syringe to give the appearance of being injured.

“He told her he needed money to get back home to Redcar.”

Lawson, of Wordsworth Road, Darlington, also approached another woman on her own in the car park of Morrison’s on the evening of February 14.

He was again covered in blood and claiming he had been stabbed and needed money.

Mr Garside said: “He told her he had been stabbed in the hand and had been refused hospital treatment and needed £10 for a taxi home.

“She went to the cash point and withdrew £10 and gave it to him. He was not injured in any way.”

Rob Hutchinson, mitigating, said his client had a heroin addiction and was struggling to feed his habit after his benefits had been stopped.

He said: “In a fairly frank disclosure, he has explained that he has an addiction to heroin and has been misusing the drug for quite a while.

“At the time of this incident he had been claiming benefits. However, he had not received them for a number of weeks and needed to seek alternative methods so he could obtain the drugs that he required.

“It is not a beautiful scenario but that is the reality of the situation. He felt like this was a preferable alternative to going out stealing, this was essentially heightened begging.

“A situation clearly unpleasant for those people he targeted but this was not an outcome he expected.”

Lawson pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud and one of possessing a controlled article, namely a syringe, between February 14 and 17 this year.

He was sentenced to 18 weeks in custody suspended for 18 months and must pay back the cash he took from the victims. He must also complete 15 rehabilitation activity days.