Notorious sob story fraudster facing jail

Andrea Thorne

A notorious fraudster who convinced her victims she needed money for a sick child has been told she is facing jail after being picked up by police. 

Andrea Thorne, 33, denied three more counts of fraud but was found guilty after a trial in December 2017. 

At that hearing, she was also convicted of breaching a criminal behaviour order by approaching someone at Montague Place in Brighton on 26 June, 2017

Six months later, in June 2018, she also admitted committing another offence while on a suspended sentence made by Sussex Magistrates Court. 

On Saturday, she appeared at Brighton Magistrates Court ahead of sentencing for those four charges – and also to face two more charges of failing to turn up to court. 

She denied failing to appear at Brighton Magistrates Court on April 3 last year and at Crawley Magistrates court on July 17 last year. 

The hearing was postponed to prepare an all options pre-sentence report into the charges she has been convicted of, and to tie up the non-appearance charges with other cases. 

The three frauds happened on 30 March 2017 at Trafalgar Street car park in Brighton, on 5 June 2017 at Churchill Square and on 24 July 2017 at The Plaza in Worthing. 

Thorne, who when she last appeared at Brighton Magistrates Court was listed as of no fixed address, was bailed with the condition she sleeps each night at an address in Steyning and reports to Shoreham police station twice a week. 

The criminal behaviour order she was found guilty of breaching was made by Brighton Magistrates Court in June 2017 when she was sentenced for four fraud offences and one shoplifting offence. 

It banned her from approaching people in a public place and asking them for money for two years.