A man who stole £3,246.27 worth of fuel from service stations in the West Midlands, has been convicted of six fraud offences.

Zia Ul-Haq of Falmouth Road in Hodge Hill used cloned fuel cards to purchase thousands of pounds worth of fuel from six forecourts in the Birmingham area.

A year ago Khaled Abdulkawi was convicted of cloning at least 46 fuel cards and passing these onto accomplices who then used them to steal petrol and diesel from service stations across Birmingham.

Following an appeal by the police through the media, Zia Ul-Haq was identified as one of the fraudsters who had been using the cloned cards.

He was arrested and charged with and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.

Anjuli Shergill, senior crown prosecutor from West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Zia Ul-Haq was fully aware that he was using a cloned fuel card and over a four-month period, he purchased £3,246.27 worth of fuel.

“When a public alert was made by the police on the cloned cards and CCTV images issued of the defendant filling up vehicles using the cards, he immediately ceased using them and he thought he had evaded justice.

“However, Ul-Haq was identified as the man in the CCTV images and arrested. He later pleaded guilty to committing the fraud.”

Ul-Haq was given a 12-month community order at Birmingham Crown Court.