A NURSE "went along for the ride" when a friend started working a dummy coin fraud at arcades in Accrington and Blackburn.

Linda Mary Fitzgerald, 41, was with Peter Lee Fenton when he was caught and 300 fake £1 coins were found in the back of her car.

Blackburn magistrates heard that the fake £1 coins being used by Fenton were two Austrian schillings - worth five pence each - glued together.

Fitzgerald, of Battersby Street, Burnley, pleaded guilty to going equipped for theft and was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to pay £54 costs.

Fenton, of Copse Drive, Burnley, pleaded guilty to going equipped for theft, theft of £20 from the Blue Lagoon arcade in Blackburn, and theft of £35 from the Blue Dahlia arcade in Accrington. He was remanded on bail until October 25 for the preparation of pre-sentence reports. The court heard that staff at the Blackburn arcade became suspicious because of the sound made by coins that Fenton was feeding into a machine. They followed him out of the shop and summoned a passing police officer.

The coins being used by Fenton were in fact two Austrian schillings glued together.

Stephen Parker, defending, said Fenton accepted that he was the more active participant.

He said: "Miss Fitzgerald has gone along for the ride and it is going to cost her dear.

"She has no previous convictions and for the last 19 years has worked as a nurse. She has dedicated her whole life to that profession and she fears that all that may be undone by this single, stupid conviction."

He said Fitzgerald had a duty to report her conviction to her employer at a private nursing home.

"She feels she will almost certainly lose her job as a result and the Royal College of Nursing will need to be told as well," said Mr Parker.

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