A pregnant woman has been jailed after admitting a cheque fraud offence.

Kelly-Marie Haynes, 26, admitted trying to cash a cheque while serving a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, for seven other cheque fraud offences.

The mother-of-two admitted those offences totalling £7,021.10 at Guildford Crown Court last September, a judge heard.

Haynes – due to give birth in four weeks – last month pleaded guilty to trying to cash another £920.30 cheque at Halifax, Abingdon on October 24 last year.

Michael Coley, defending, told Oxford Crown Court yesterday Haynes of Wharf Green, Kings Heath, Northamptonshire, was asked to pay in the cheque – altered from a genuine cheque – by a friend.

Sentencing her to 16 weeks in prison, Judge Patrick Eccles said: “I would not be doing my duty, however harsh it may seem to some people, were I not to do that.”