A SERIAL fraudster has again avoided a prison sentence after this time posing as a solicitor to con a vulnerable woman out of money during a family court dispute.

Carla Evans, 34, from Caerphilly told the victim she was a solicitor and would help her for free, but later asked for money.

She had previously been convicted of fraud in 2019 in South Wales after claiming she had terminal cancer to con a small charity into paying for a wedding ceremony.

In the new case, Bristol Crown Court heard Evans drafted letters on the woman’s behalf on headed law firm paper, took official statements from family members and told her there were dates fixed in court.

Emilene Davis, prosecuting, told the court the victim was introduced to Evans via a mutual friend.

“She asked her for advice and help, and Miss Evans agreed to help her pro bono,” she said.

“She opened up about the abuse she suffered as a child. These are matters she had never disclosed to anyone before. It distressed her.

“Miss Evans took a statement from her younger sister. Subsequently, she received those two statements on headed paper from an actual law firm, which had her believe this was all real.

“Miss Evans later asked for money – in total, a sum of £1,884.”

The court heard the victim was struggling financially and paid around £1,500, and borrowed the remainder from a family member.

Evans told the victim there was a court date set for her case in August 2021 and as that date approached told her it had been moved until October.

“Believing that to be true she made contact with Miss Evans regarding the progress of the case, and she was reassured she was working hard towards that date,” the prosecutor said.

Becoming suspicious, the woman did some research online and learnt of Evans’s previous conviction for the charity fraud.

“She asked Miss Evans for evidence of her qualifications and she provided her with a Solicitors Regulation Authority practising certificate and a College of Law graduate diploma in law certificate,” Miss Davis said.

The victim contacted the law firm Evans claimed to work for and they said they had no record of her.

“She confronted her about this and she maintained her position she was a solicitor, and said she and her law firm didn’t wish to continue to represent her any further.”

Miss Davis added: “This was a sophisticated fraud with significant planning, including research of real law firms and the terminology they use.

“This was the deliberate targeting of a vulnerable woman.”

The second offence regarded a different woman who had spent £160 buying Christmas gifts Evans was selling on Facebook Marketplace.

The court heard when the items did not arrive the second woman contacted Evans, who made excuses.

“She said her father had just passed away and was making funeral arrangements, the gifts were out with a courier, but she couldn’t provide a tracking number, and her son was in hospital with a brain tumour and later passed away,” Miss Davis said.

“She later said she had been inundated with orders and had to cancel them, but had every intention of returning the money.”

Evans, now of Ledbury Road, Fishponds, Bristol had previously admitted two counts of fraud by false representation, which were committed on dates between June and August and October and December 2021.

Susan Cavender, defending, said: “It was a genuine attempt to help and it got out of hand, and she feels she had to create more elaborate stories.

“She was clearly doing it to make money and her family circumstances are difficult.”

Miss Cavender said Evans now had three children and was pregnant with a fourth.

Judge William Hart imposed a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered Evans to complete 20 rehabilitation days and pay compensation totalling £2,044 to her victims.

“It can be considered that having caring responsibilities is a get out of jail free card, but on the other hand it can be overlooked,” he said.

“If you comply with these requirements that sentence will not come into effect. If you fail to pay the compensation the court can begin proceedings against you. It is a not a condition of the suspended sentence.

“If you do reoffend you will be very lucky to get a similar result.”

In 2019 Newport Crown Court heard Evans pretended to have bladder cancer, thyroid cancer and liver and kidney failure to defraud the Wish Upon a Wedding charity.

The charity was to organise a ceremony renewing Evans’s wedding vows costing £15,000.

Due to suspicions the charity had, the ceremony never took place