A university graduate from Stonebridge has been found guilty of conning O2 out of £5,168 worth of iPhones.

Anne Bharwani, 25, of Hilltop Avenue, faces jail for swindling the mobile phone giant out of 16 iPhone 5S contracts between June and August last year by posing as a high-flying executive.

The Old Bailey heard she used forged bank statements and bogus purchase orders to carry out the scam, posing as a director at eight different companies as a director, including international shipping firm Boreas and a subsidiary of global financiers Rothschild.

In each case, she handed over mocked-up papers with letterheads supposed to belong from the company, along with bank statements to support her claim to be from the firm.

Investigators found in some case the companies used had no employees and no need for mobile phones, and in all cases they had never heard of Bharwani.

She had denied any wrongdoing saying she had been acting in good faith, persuaded to sign up for the contracts by a man who told her he owned all eight companies.

Yesterday, she collapsed crying in the dock and called a police officer a ‘stupid evil woman’ when a jury found her guilty of eight counts of fraud by false representation.

Judge Mark Lucraft QC told the court he was not considering sending Bharwani to prison, but his mood darkened as she ranted from the dock.

He said: “I’m not currently minded that this is a case that requires immediate custody, but having such an approach to a police officer doing nothing more than carrying out her public duty, it doesn’t inspire me to say she should have bail.”

He eventually relented after Bharwani apologised for the outburst, releasing her on bail until a sentencing hearing on July 31.