A WOMAN from Flintshire with a heroin problem used a former partner's card to the tune of £8,000.

Catherine Marie Hall, 35, had been guilty of a breach of trust, prosecutor Justin Espie told magistrates.

The victim felt as if his heart had been taken out and stamped upon and feared he could lose everything.

Hall, formerly of Ffynnongroyw but now of Carmel Road in Holywell, appeared from custody before North East Wales Magistrates Court at Mold after a warrant had been issued for her arrest.

She failed to attend a previous hearing but Hall told how she would have responded but did not receive any notification because she had changed address.

Hall admitted fraud between March 10 and April 8 last year in Flintshire and Denbighshire in that she dishonestly made a false representation, namely that she was authorised to use a credit and bank card belonging to Anthony Armstrong, intending to make a gain.

She was rebailed pending sentence at Mold Crown Court next month.

Mr Espie said it was a breach of trust case because the victim was a neighbour who had been involved in a relationship with the defendant.

He had given her his cards and PIN to pay for meals when they were out and also for her to withdraw some funds to pay for electricity on one occasion.

But she had bought goods and withdrawn cash far in excess of what he had authorised.

He had been contacted by the bank following suspicious activity and he discovered that he had lost more than £8,000.

In a victim impact statement he said that she had left him totally broke.

He had been planning to go to America, where his brother lived, on his father's 70th birthday but would now have to miss out on such an important family event.

Mr Armstrong told how he had to take a loan out to pay for the debts Hall had built up and he had an extra bill of some £9,000 to pay.

"I feel as if someone has ripped out my heart and stamped on it," he said.

He felt foolish and gullible and added: "I don't deserve this."

There was a possibility that he could lose everything as a result of "the mess she has left me in", he said.

Gary Harvey, defending, said Hall, who had a child of 12, was a vulnerable lady who felt embarrassed and humiliated by her court appearance.

The complainant was a neighbour, they had some sort of relationship and she was given permission to use his cards.

But she accepted she had gone far beyond what he had authorised her to do.

The reason she had done that was that she had got into a drugs debts and threats had been made.

She had used the complainant's accounts without his knowledge to get a drugs dealer off her back.

Mr Harvey said his client had tried hard to get into rehabilitation in order to get rid of her heroin addiction.

Heroin had "just made things go away for her".

But she was determined to change her life, was anxious to get a job and turn her life around, Mr Harvey said.