A VULNERABLE Milford Haven woman was badgered into fraudulently obtaining more than £4,000 worth of flagship mobile phones by a friend of a Nigerian former lover.

Appearing before Haverfordwest magistrates on Tuesday, Samantha Stowell, 30, of Albion Street admitted to six charges of fraudulently obtaining state-of-the-art iPhone 6 mobile phones from local phone stores.

The six fraud charges, on November 28 and 29 of last year; saw seven phones, worth around £600 each, obtained from the Vodafone, EE and Carphone Warehouse stores in Haverfordwest and from the Tesco and O2 stores in Carmarthen.

The phones were obtained through contacts taken out using stolen bank card identification obtained by the London-based Nigerian, who has since gone to ground.

Prosecuting, Ellie Morgan said the frauds came to light after the two female victims, whose identity had been used, received letters welcoming them to their new phone contracts.

Stowell and her Nigerian accomplice were identified on CCTV.

She was later arrested at her home address, where paperwork relating to the fraudulent phone contracts was found.

“There are still ongoing enquiries regarding the male, a Nigerian national, who is currently on the Police National Computer as wanted,” said Ms Morgan.

During police interview single mum Stowell, of previously clean character, told police she was told by the man to memorise details of the two cards before the frauds.

“He did all the talking and filled in the paperwork, she was getting things wrong. She worried about what they were doing but nonetheless went through with it,” said Ms Morgan.

“She never benefitted; the phones all went back to his friends in London.”

Defending, Gareth Lewis said: “Effectively she has been used here; she was approached by the friend of a friend who she only met two times before. He has demanded she take part in this fraud; she was given two hours to learn a script and was frog-marched off to these stores.

“She felt she didn’t have a choice, she felt she had to go along with it.”

Mr Lewis added: “She is more a pawn in this; the Nigerian male needed a female.

“He had come down for this purpose and she had to do it; I think people further up the chain knew she was a vulnerable person who could be intimidated.”

Stowell was placed on a 12 month community order, with supervision and 250 hours of unpaid work, as well as costs of £85 and a £60 surcharge.

No order for compensation was made.