AN "identity thief" embarked on a luxury lifestyle of drinking and gambling in York bars and hotels after swindling more than £40,000 using other people's financial details.

While Joseph Constantine Ashby was living it up and amassing two Aladdin's caves of computer equipment, he was also turning the lives of complete strangers into nightmares as they discovered they were funding his high-rolling lifestyle.

He even masqueraded as an academic from the University of York as he cheated his way to more than £40,000 in other people's names in only five months.

When police caught up with him, he had nearly £10,000 in cash and a list of personal details including credit card numbers for 140 real people.

Jailing Ashby for four years, the Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, said: "It is disturbing that one can obtain other people's IDs and credit card details so easily."

DOZENS of strangers unknowingly funded the luxury lifestyle of a sophisticated identity thief as he drank and gambled, York Crown Court heard.

Joseph Constantine Ashby, 30, exploited his neighbour's absence on holiday and lax security checks on the internet to cheat his way to more than £40,000 in six months on credit cards, a loan and spread betting accounts, said Andrew Kershaw, prosecuting.

He ran up £29,000 of debts in the name of University of York academic Sultan Barakat when the two men were close neighbours in Melrose Court and the doctor was away from home.

Then he moved in with a new girlfriend in Bristol and with his laptop and a list of names, addresses and credit card details of 140 people set up a series of accounts in their names on internet spread betting websites.

But when Mr Barakat came home in September 2004 to find a "nightmare postbag" of a sheaf of payment demands and solicitors letters about credit agreements he had never made, Ashby's time was up.

The Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, told Ashby: "I have no doubt that had you not been apprehended when you were, you would have gone on to the full extent of the list." He jailed Ashby for four years.

Ashby, who has used different addresses in York, one in Bristol, and gave an address in New Elton, London, after his arrest, admitted seven charges of deception, four of transferring criminal property and asked for 19 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Ashby will learn on July 15 how many of his goods will be confiscated at a special hearing.

Mr Kershaw said that Ashby used to live in the same building as Dr Barakat. While the doctor was away, he took out two credit cards in the doctor's name and ran them both up to their credit limits, buying computer hardware. Then he applied for a £20,000 loan using the doctor's details and just before payment was made, claimed his bank details had changed.

"People who knew him when he was in York, say his life was simply a party. He lived in hotels and bars."

The previous year, he had met a Bristol woman and after April 2004, he moved into her West Country home.

"Once installed in her flat, on his laptop, he set about opening accounts with spread bet firms," he said.

He used the names on his ID list to transfer thousands of pounds from their credit card accounts into the fraudulent accounts.

For Ashby, Simon Waley handed in a letter from him to the judge. He said his client had got the list of IDs from a stranger who had offered it to him.

Ashby started drinking and gambling, and couldn't stop. "He was continuing to lead a completely fake life", said Mr Waley.

Updated: 09:39 Saturday, April 09, 2005