A NIGERIAN woman who travelled to Cornwall with fake cards was found to be money laundering after a St Austell shop worker warned his colleagues about her.

Tolulope Aderinola, 31, went into the EE shop on Fore Street on September 12, last year and tried to buy a Samsung S4 mobile phone on a contract, Truro Crown Court heard on Thursday.

Andrew Maitland, for the prosecution, said that, at that time, she was calling herself Emily Snowden but left without the phone after it was noticed that the card she was trying to use had been over-written on the signature strip.

Mr Maitland said Wesley Stetchfield, who worked at the shop, had the “foresight to e-mail the other branches of EE giving them the name and address of this lady”.

The court heard the address was in Camborne and the next day Aderinola went into the Penzance branch of EE, this time giving her name as Stacey Richards.

Mr Maitland said the address Aderinola was using was the same and Paul Farrell, who worked there, remembered the e-mail from the day before.

“He arranged for the police to be called and told the defendant that the card was going to be copied but had got stuck in the photocopier,” said Mr Maitland.

Aderinola said she wanted to go to Tesco and left without the card but was arrested by police a short time later in Boots.

Mr Maitland said investigations revealed that £14,420 had been placed in the single mother’s account between the beginning of July and the middle of August.

Aderinola, of Redcliffe Court, Napolean Road, London, admitted two counts of fraud by making false representations to Mr Farrell and Mr Setchfield.

She also admitted acquiring criminal property in relation to the money in her bank account.

Court liaison probation officer Mary Lewis said Aderinola had made some poor choices in her relationships.

She said: “I asked her why come to Cornwall and all she has been able to say is that is what she was told to do and the benefit for her was going to be money.”

Chris Spencer, for the defence, said Aderinola said she became involved in the offences because of the relationship she was in at the time.

She was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to attend ten sessions at a women’s centre in Hackney.

A timetable for a proceeds of crime hearing to try to recover some of the money was set.