The Magistrate and her two colleagues on the bench presided over a hearing in January 1998 after Deirdre Rachid had been charged with obtaining a credit card by deception and procuring a mortgage by fraud. Deirdre was utterly innocent of the charge, having been come another victim of conman Jon Lindsay. With no evidence to prove this at the time, there was a possibility that she would be remanded in custody pending her trial but her solicitor Frances Stillman requested bail and offered the court a surety, which Mike Baldwin had offered to pay, and a guarantee that she would remain at her listed address of 1 Coronation Street. Peter Phelan, acting for the prosecution, requested that the magistrates also impose an order that Deirdre surrender her passport and give a further guarantee that she would obtain no travel documents. Although Frances objected, the magistrate told Deirdre that they would be naive not to think that she might abscond and added the CPS’s demand to the order. This presented a problem as Deirdre didn't have her passport on her and the magistrate insisted that should be held in the cells at the court until Frances returned with the document.