A Melksham car dealer convicted of fraud last year will face trial for shoplifting in April.

Miles Eglin, 46, of Shaw Hill, pleaded not guilty to theft at North Wiltshire Magistrates Court today, after he was accused of trying to steal food and household goods worth £340.67 from the town’s ASDA store.

He was arrested on December 30, after a trolley laden with the items was taken outside the Bradford Road store.

In October last year he pleaded guilty to fraud after making four failed payments to Aston Barclay Westbury in 2012. He was ordered to repay the £52,923 and to complete 150 hours of unpaid work. He was also issued with a six-month jail term, suspended for a year.

In September he told the Wiltshire Times issuing the cheques had been a “big mistake”, and he was working to get his life back on track.

He said: “I’d just been through this awful divorce and there was a catalogue of things that all happened in a short period.

“In three months, I lost my Nan, my wife left and I found I had a shadow on my lung, which, thankfully, later turned out to be benign.

“I issued those two cheques when I was in Cornwall with my kids, just to try to bury my head in the sand, but that was a big mistake.

It was a huge error on my part that was made at a time when some of the decisions I was taking weren’t right. I am doing everything in my power to try and put it all right.

“I just want to put it all behind me; put my life back on track.”

He was granted unconditional bail at the hearing, and will return to face trial on April 1.