A WOMAN from Burton-in-Kendal has been sent to prison for fraud after spending nearly 11 years on the run in Thailand.

Diane Coates, 65, fled the country in 2000 after police discovered she had been forging the signatures of her husband, mother and best friends to take out loans.

She was charged with 17 offences of fraud and deception but left Britain before she could be taken to court.

She was arrested by the Thai authorities in November for having an out-of-date passport and spent nearly three months in the notorious woman’s prison known as the ‘Bangkok Hilton’ before being extradited back to Britain.

At Carlisle Crown Court she pleaded guilty to eight charges each of forgery and using false loan agreement forms with intent to deceive various financial institutions, and one of signing a false affidavit with intent to pervert the course of justice.

She was sent to prison for ten months.

Prosecuting counsel Frank Nance told the court that over seven years in the 1990s Coates had taken out a series of loans in the names of other people, none of whom had any idea what she was doing.

She forged the signatures of her husband Harry, her mother Doreen Dearden and her friend Margaret Labat – whom she had known for more than 50 years, he said.

And it was only when debt collectors started calling on them, asking why the loans had not been repaid, that she was found out, Mr Nance said.

By that time she had built up debts which, with interest, amounted to £38,915, he said.

In mitigation defence barrister Greg Hoare said Coates had got into financial problems after helping out her son, who lived in Thailand.

As a result of what she had done, he said, she had now lost everything.

“She has nothing left – nothing to look forward to and nowhere to live,” he said.

“She is in many ways a woman whose life is finished, as far as anything worth living for is concerned.

“It would be impossible to convey how much regret and sorrow she has, not just for her own position, but for what she has done to the people who liked and loved and respected her.”

Passing sentence, Judge Barbara Forrester told Coates she had been “totally dishonest”.

“You dug yourself deeper and deeper into a hole and were betraying the trust of your husband, your friends and your mother,” she said.