A WOMAN with terminal cancer has criticised a decision to allow a fraudster who used her personal details to take out a bank loan to walk free from court.

Eleanor Arthur was said to have needed the money to visit her three sons, who were all in different prisons.

Arthur, 54, took out the £500 loan after correspondence arrived at her home for the previous occupant, Angela Carbert.

Mrs Carbert said in a statement that she had been left shattered and revealed that she has had trouble getting credit because Arthur has made only one payment to the loan company.

“If this woman is so desperate to have my life, she can have it, but she will have to take my terminal cancer as well,” she said in the statement.

After hearing that Arthur, of Barron Street, Darlington, was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to theft, possessing Class C drugs and making false representation, as well as breaching an earlier suspended sentence, Mrs Carbert said: “I think the sentence is ridiculous.

She should have been banged up.

“They seem to think that its a victimless crime because it is all paperwork. Just because it doesn’t look like it affects anyone, that isn’t the case.”

Teesside Crown Court was told that the scam came to light when Arthur was arrested for shoplifting last October.

Staff at Marks and Spencer, in Darlington, detained her when they saw her steal an £18 ring, said Rachel Masters, prosecuting.

Arthur also had 18 diazepam tablets and paperwork in her bag in the name of Mrs Carbert, the court heard.

Miss Masters said Arthur told police she had known Mrs Carbert for 30 years, and that she was aware of the loan.

Steven Andrews, mitigating, told the court that Athur’s drug dependency was at the root of her offending.

He said the unemployed mother-of-three was desperate for money to visit her sons.

“She had no information whatsoever at the time in relation to the victim’s state of health,” said Mr Andrews. “It is certainly something that is not lost on her and she expresses great remorse.”