THREE people, including a Kidderminster man, who carried out an £80,000 scam to obtain goods by using the details of elderly patients in Midlands' hospitals are facing jail.

Brian Wells got his ex-wife Patricia to supply him with a medical admissions book from the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, where she worked as an auxiliary nurse, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Bogus bank accounts were then opened in names taken from the book.

Loans obtained fraudulently were used to buy goods at supermarkets and DIY stores, said prosecutor William Rickarby.

The couple were put under surveillance when a fake cheque was passed in a supermarket and they were arrested a day later at the home they still shared in Mappleborough Green, Redditch.

Police recovered goods from their garage and from the home of Karl Harper, 36, of Usmere Way, Kidderminster.

Brian Wells, 62, now of Beoley Road, Redditch, and Harper pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obtain goods by deception before the trial of Patricia Wells began, the jury heard.

She was convicted of a similar offence last week and remanded on bail for a pre-sentence report. Her fellow plotters are in custody.

Recorder Daniel Pearce-Higgins QC warned her that the court would be thinking of a jail term for such a serious offence.

Patricia Wells, 47, now of Garway Close, Matchborough, Redditch, was married for 13 years but was divorced in 1996.

She gave evidence that she copied names from the admissions book while at work.

She then provided the book to be photocopied at the request of her ex-husband - but claimed she did not know why.

She denied any knowledge of dodgy goods stored in their garage.

But Mr Rickarby said she provided confidential information which enabled the plotters to open the bank accounts.

She knew her ex-husband and Harper had been in jail together before and knew they had a crooked motive for wanting the admissions book.

The three will be sentenced at a date to be fixed after a judge has ruled on the parts played by each conspirator.