10:21am Tuesday 9th February 2010
By Court Reporter
A jealous man who started a relationship with a woman he met via social networking site Facebook took his partner's engagement ring given by an ex boyfriend and pawned it for £325.
James Wheatley, 36, met Jennifer Medway online and started a relationship after they had ended with their respective partners.
The couple had been seeing each other for some time before the relationship turned sour and they split up after Wheatley assaulted Miss Medway in her Rickmansworth home on November 14.
After the break, Wheatley, of Pennard House, South Oxhey, sent Miss Medway a message saying he was back together with someone else and if she was looking for her engagement ring it was at H&T Pawnbrokers in High Street, Watford.
Miss Medway discovered the nine carat diamond solitaire ring was missing from clothing where she had hidden it inside a wardrobe and police were called.
Wheatley pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation, for dishonestly pawning the ring, at Hemel Hempstead Magistrates' Court on Monday.
He also pleaded guilty to assault having already admitted criminal damage following the November incident at Miss Medway's home.
After his arrest Wheatley told police he did not like seeing the ring around the house.
He had told her not to wear it as it reminded him of a previous relationship.
Although he had informed Miss Medway he had pawned the ring he claimed to police he had taken it to get it resized and remounted in order to propose to Miss Medway.
Charlotte Roos, prosecuting said: “He said she was completely unaware of what he had done.
“He later admitted he had taken it to a pawn brokers and used the money to buy clothes for his children.”
Police retrieved the ring from the pawnbrokers, which Wheatley had not yet paid the £481 loan to get back.
The court also heard Wheatley flew into a drunken rage at Miss Medway's home in Rickmansworth, putting his hands round her neck and punching her and smashing a coffee table and printer.
The common assault took place in front of children belonging to both of them as a friend of Miss Medway's tried to console the youngsters in the kitchen.
Magistrates adjourned sentence until March for reports.
Wheatley, who has a number of previous convictions, was released on conditional bail prohibiting contact with Miss Medway, including via social networking sites.
He is also banned from her Rickmansworth address.
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