AN ELECTRICIAN working for hospital contractors has admitted a £2,960 timesheet fraud.

Paul Hayden was caught out thanks to a fingerprint scanning system at the construction site.

North East Wales Magistrates Court at Mold was told how workers had to scan when they entered and left the site.

Inquiries began at Apex Engineering when Hayden presented a time sheet signed by a supervisor who was away on holiday.

An investigation showed he would sometimes not turn up for work or would make excuses and leave after a few hours.

But he had claimed in timesheets that he had been in work, prosecutor James Neary said.

Hayden, 60, at the time of Chester Road in Saltney Ferry but now said to be of no fixed abode and living in a car, admitted six fraud charges committed in June and July at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire.

Deputy district judge Gerallt Jones adjourned sentence until Monday so he can be assessed for possible alcohol treatment.

Mr Neary said Hayden was employed by Apex Engineering which was carrying out electrical and engineering installations at the hospital.

There was a fingerprint scanning system to log people on and off the site.

Checks were made when a time sheet was submitted which was purported to have been signed by a supervisor when it could not have been because the supervisor was away on holiday.

It turned out that there had been gaps in his work which were not reflected in the timesheets. The total loss was £2,960, Mr Neary said.

He added Hayden had made excuses about going in and out of a back gate but that was not accepted.

Laura Preston-Hayes, defending, said with the fingerprint recognition system it was clear her client was going to be caught.

Hayden could not remember an awful lot but "his head had gone" following the death of his father and the breakdown of a long marriage.

He had been living in a car recently.

She said he clearly had issues that needed to be addressed.

Miss Preston-Hayes said Hayden had always worked as an electrician and he could not explain a temporary blip which had meant he had been out of work for some five weeks.