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, St Albans.

He was asked to remove the offending obstruction 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 found the cards on a bench seat in a pub garden in the city after he visited friends in St Albans.

At St Albans crown court yesterday 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 featured Eastern European names, although no one had come forward to report their loss.

Prosecuting, Wayne Cleaver 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, Dagenham had no previous convictions and was a hard worker who lived modestly.

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

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