Serial fraudster mum Charmaine McAllister jailed for bank card con

Charmaine McAllister is a notorious con artist, using guises to obtain other people’s bank cards which she has used to fund a lavish lifestyle.

The 37-year-old has racked up an eyewatering number of previous convictions over the past 20 years – more than 190 for dishonest offences such as fraud and theft.

She is now back in jail for offences in Warrington and across Cheshire and the north west, many of which involved buying cars using innocent people’s bank cards and selling them.

The mum-of three appeared before Chester Crown Court after previously pleading guilty to 10 counts of fraud by false representation and one of theft by finding.

The court heard from prosecutor Laura Knightly how all of the offences were committed in October 2022.

The master manipulator duped an advertising customer of Horse and Hound magazine by pretending to work for them and requesting payment.

Having obtained bank cards, they were used in a fraud wave across the north west over a short period of days towards the end of October.

On October 14, McAllister presented card details purporting to have authority to do so at a dealership in Willaston, near Crewe, to avoid paying close to £5,000 for a black BMW one series.

Charmaine McAllister was jailed at Chester Crown Court

The following day, she then presented the car for sale in Deeside, despite not having the authority to do so, with the intention of making a gain of £2,500 for herself.

The same fraud occurred on October 22 after the defendant used other people’s bank cards to obtain a grey Hyundai i30 at a Warrington dealership for £6,500, before trying to sell it for £4,000 in Chorley.

That same day, another BMW was obtained fraudulently for £2,895 by McAllister in KC Motors in Ellesmere Port – where she also brazenly stole a bank card from a staff member – before an attempt was made to sell the one series in Chester for £500.

These frauds came to light after the innocent buyers of the cars were stopped by police, and it is believed most of the victims have been refunded by their respective banks.

As well as car frauds, the defendant also used other people’s bank cards in Wrexham to buy £55-worth of goods from Sainsbury’s on two occasions and £167-worth from Gumtree on four occasions.

McAllister even used the card to fund £125-worth of services from Ramada Plaza hotel in the city.

The court heard that she was on bail for other fraud offences when she committed this wave of offending – and she has been jailed on 16 previous occasions for 135 frauds and 57 thefts.

For these latest crimes, McAllister, of Black Drove in Boston, Lincolnshire, was sentenced by judge Steven Everett to 15 months in prison.

This is consecutive, and therefore on top of, a sentence of 40 months imprisonment she is already serving for other offences.