Yellowknife (May 12/06) - A Yellowknife crack addict admitted Wednesday to passing off $13,000 in bad cheques and racking up more than $4,000 on a stolen credit card during three crime waves last year.

Shawn Bennett, a father of three, changed his plea to guilty in territorial court to seven counts of fraud, about one week before he was set to stand trial. He had previously pleaded not guilty.

The 37-year-old handyman is scheduled to be back in court June 29 for sentencing.

Bennett was one of three people implicated in a fraud scheme that saw thousands of dollars worth of bad cheques passed off at two Yellowknife businesses. One of the companies - Ditab Enterprises, owner of the local H&R Block tax office - lost more than $13,000. The man police accused of helping Bennett fleece H&R Block fled the Northwest Territories and remains on the run, Crown Attorney John McFarlane said.

The charges against a third man were dropped.

Bennett cashed several cheques at H&R Block in February 2005; one was almost $3,500. In March of the same year, he admitted to stealing two cheques from the Union of Northern Workers and giving them to a friend who tried, unsuccessfully, to cash them at a downtown bar.

Finally, while out on bail in November, he stole a credit card and racked up 28 charges totalling $4,063.

Bennett and another woman were caught on videotape at several stores passing the pilfered plastic.

McFarlane called for 9-13 months behind bars, along with an order that Bennett reimburse H&R Block and the credit card company more than $17,000.

"It was a planned and deliberate offence," McFarlane said of the cheque fraud.

Bennett suffers from an addiction to crack cocaine and the proceeds from the crime spree went towards his "expensive" habit, defence lawyer James Brydon said.

He recommended Bennett, who works seven days a week as a maintenance man at McDonald's, receive a conditional sentence and house arrest.

It would be extremely difficult for Bennett to ever repay the $17,000 working at McDonald's and not "the rarefied air of government service," Brydon said.