An attempt was made to use a health minister's credit card details to buy a designer coat worth almost £1,000, a court has heard.

The attempted transaction, in October 2019, came after a fraudulent copy of a card belonging to MP for Mid Bedfordshire, Nadine Dorries, was made.

A phone number and email address used led to Cory Chin, 24, of Walthamstow, east London, being tracked down.

At Westminster Magistrates' Court, Chin was handed a 12-month community order.

The trainee engineer had pleaded guilty to attempting to use the Conservative MP's card details to buy a Canada Goose coat worth £958.

The sentence requires Chin, of Palmerston Road, to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work and he was ordered to pay £175 costs.

Chin was described in court as a "well-educated and hard-working young man".

The court heard he had not been involved in obtaining the card details, but "takes full responsibility for his behaviour" in trying to use them.

He had "no idea" who Ms Dorries was and did not specifically target her as an MP, the court was told.

Sentencing him, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said it was acknowledged "no actual financial loss was suffered by the complainant" and that Chin had shown "genuine remorse" and accepted the "distress and inconvenience" his actions had caused.

A second man is due to be sentenced at a later date.

Ms Dorries said: "This kind of sophisticated technology enabled theft can affect anyone and I am so grateful to the police for arresting these criminals."

Det Con Warren Joseph, from the City of London Police, said: "Through the good work of the banks and the online retail industry to prevent suspicious transactions, the victim in this case is not out of pocket.

"Despite this, Ms Dorries, correctly, still made a report to Action Fraud, which meant we were able to track down those responsible for the offence and bring them before the courts."

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