A REDDITCH man knew it must be “too good to be true” when someone contacted him out of the blue offering to sell him cheap diesel, Worcester Crown Court was told.

And the diesel bought by Shane Taylor, aged 49, of Throckmorton Road - at a discount of £150 – turned out to have been fraudulently obtained on a company fuel card by the other man.

Taylor, who is self employed, admitted two offences of possessing criminal property – 160 litres of diesel obtained from Edgintons Garage in Studley and 170 litres from Tesco at Coldfield Drive, Redditch – which he knew or suspected to be the proceeds of fraud.

He was fined £500 and ordered to pay £500 costs.

John Brotherton, prosecuting, said Patrick Carr, who has pleaded guilty to fraud but has yet to be sentenced by the court, was a sales manager for Future Water and had been supplied with a pooled fuel card.

But Keyfuels, which had supplied the card, contacted Future Water after it had been used several times a day, to a total of 113 occasions.

Carr, 28, of Southcrest Road, Redditch, was arrested and it was found text messages had been exchanged between him and Taylor.

Mr Brotherton said Taylor owned two tipper trucks and he had received a call “out of the blue” from Carr asking him if he wanted to buy cheap diesel.

Taylor accepted that, on four occasions, he had received fuel bought on the card.

Taylor later picked out Carr in an identity parade as the person who had sold him the fuel.

Mr Brotherton said: “In real terms he turned a blind eye to what was happening.

“He had been told that Mr Carr had an allowance, he did not achieve that allowance and the rest he could sell.”

Julia Powell, defending, said Taylor, a self-employed father of three, had no previous convictions for dishonesty.

Judge Michael Cullum told Taylor he had obtained £450 worth of fuel, for which he had paid £300, from a man who had phoned out of the blue and said: “Call me Pat.”

“You knew it was too good to be true,” said the judge.