A heroin addict desperately committed fraud to repay his dealers after he smoked drugs he was meant to sell, a court heard.

Wayne Williams, 30, was spared jail after Lavender Hill Magistrates’ Court heard how he tried to withdraw cash from HSBC in Richmond with a fake driving licence.

Williams, from Essex, was given a 16-week sentence, suspended for two years, and 200 hours unpaid work on March 20, having pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possessing an item for use in fraud.

The court heard Williams went into HSBC in Richmond on January 21 and tried to withdraw 8,960 euro (£7,600) from a business bank account with a fake driving licence, but was caught out by the teller who called the police.

He was driven there by two dealers, known as “Somali” and “Black Tom”, after Williams, a self-confessed heroin addict, smoked £500 worth of the drugs they gave him to sell because he owed them money, the court was told.

Andrea Williams, prosecuting, told the court one of the dealers “used a blade to cut his neck as a warning” before deciding Williams would withdraw the cash.

Mrs Williams said: “On Monday, January 21, he [one of the dealers] called his phone and said he wanted a picture of him and said they are going to do a bank job to repay his debt.

“He decided to do the job to get them off his back.”

Williams was driven to Richmond by the drug dealers who gave him the fake driving licence and business account details before he was caught and arrested.

The court heard Williams, represented by David Jones, accepted what he had done was wrong, was sorry for his actions and would not do anything like this again.