When police pulled up a driver for using his mobile phone while behind the wheel, they couldn't help noticing the "bulge" down the front of his trousers.

Not only that but whatever it was appeared to be causing Romanian painter and decorator Iulian Ceausescu some discomfort as they questioned him about the use of the phone in Chequer Street.

He was asked to remove whatever it was and the officers discovered he had hidden nine Barclays Bank cards down his pants.

After his arrest on October 1 last year 38 year old Ceausescu claimed he had been visiting friends in St Albans that day and had visited a pub garden in the city and found the cards on a bench seat.

At St Albans crown court today the Romanian who has been in the UK for two years pleaded guilty to theft of the cards on the basis that he had found them.

Judge Marie Catterson hearing the case was told that all the cards were in the names of Eastern European people, although no one had come forward to report their loss.

Wayne Cleaver prosecuting said the accounts they were connected to appeared to have been recently opened and four figure funds had ben paid into them.

The court was told Ceausescu of Oxflow Lane, Daggenham had no previous convictions and was a hard worker who lived modestly.

It was also accepted he had not used the cards to obtain any money.

He was fined £145 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £200.