A DRUGS criminal from Carlisle used three people’s stolen credit card details to splash out more than £4,000 on a luxury two-week break in Florida for himself and his family, a court heard.

Scott Sutherland, 26, currently serving eight years in jail for drugs offences, refused to leave his prison cell at Haverigg Prison to face justice at the city’s Rickergate Magistrates’ Court because he feared he would be returned to Durham Prison instead.

But he instructed his lawyer to enter guilty pleas to three fraud charges - each relating to payments to fund flights to Florida for him, his partner, and child relatives. It was one of several foreign holidays he enjoyed in 2017.

But the Crown Prosecution Service has brought charges only over his Florida trip.

Pam Ward, prosecuting, said police uncovered the fraud as they investigated serious drugs offences which involved Sutherland and his fellow criminals involved in conspiracy to supply the class A drug cocaine.

On June 19, 2017, Sutherland used a stolen Tesco credit card to splash out £1,672 on a Virgin Atlantic flight to Florida. The payment also covered the cost of flights for two children, both his relatives, said Mrs Ward.

Two days later, he again used somebody else’s TSB credit card, spending £1,214 on a flight to Florida for his partner and their child. In both cases, the owners knew nothing of the transaction.

The defendant committed a third fraud on July 2, using a stranger’s credit card to pay £1,427 on a return flight from Florida to Manchester Airport for himself, his partner, and the three children they took with them to Florida.

“Police recovered CCTV of the defendant and his family leaving the flight,” said Mrs Ward. Once again, the card’s owner was oblivious. All three victims have been reimbursed. None recognised the contact email addresses of mobile phone numbers that Sutherland furnished to falsely corroborate his identity when he was using the cards, said the prosecutor.

Sutherland made no comment when police interviewed him.

Mrs Ward added: “There are suspicions the cards may have been obtained from abroad. It wasn’t just the case that the defendant found a stolen credit card and used it. There’s evidence that it was part of a group activity.”

The loss to the credit card companies involved was £4,314.

Sean Harkin, for Sutherland, said: “He says he is sorry for the harm he has caused.”

To explain his absence from the court, he is currently in HMP Haverigg and feels that his rehabilitation would be disrupted if he was brought to court.

“There’s no guarantee he would be returned to Haverigg, and its likely he would be sent to Durham and it could take months for him to get back to Haverigg. He has previous for conspiracy to supply drugs but no record for dishonesty offences. In fact, his drugs conviction is his sole conviction.”

The lawyer said that given the frauds did not cross the custody threshold, the court might consider imposing a conditional discharge. Sutherland refused to leave Haverigg, he said, because he feared being sent to Durham after his hearing.

Magistrates agreedwith that assessment custody was not appropriate but noted a community penalty was not possible as Sutherland is currently a long-term prisoner at Haverigg.

They imposed fines of £600 - £200 for each fraud, which the defendant must pay when he is released from prison, along with £85 costs.

The News & Star has learned how 2017 was a year of holidays for Sutherland.

As well as having breaks in Florida, he also enjoyed holidays in Tenerife, the Spanish resort of Alicante, Croatia and Ibiza in the Balearic Islands. His high-life ended after a Cumbria Police investigation which smashed the dealing operation.

Sutherland's high-life ended thanks to Cumbria Police's Operation Goose, which smashed his Carlisle gang's cocaine dealing operation. 

A few years before he was caught, police in Carlisle had searched his mother's home in Denton Holme - and found £85,000 in cash hidden under the floorboards. 

A court ruled that police keep the cash because Sutherland - who formerly worked as a window cleaner - could give no explanation of why the money was there. 

His fingerprints were on the wrapping that contained the cash.

The money has been ploughed back into the fight against crime in Cumbria.