A FRAUDSTER used a series of fake and stolen identities including a former girlfriend’s details to cheat his way to more than £17,000, York Crown Court heard.

Barry Dockerty’s ex-partner had to pay £780 to preserve her good credit record after he took out a loan in her name without telling her and without any intention of paying it back, Alan Mitcheson, prosecuting said.

When she called in police, they searched the home of Dockerty, 26, and uncovered a web of deceit in which he had conned eBay customers into handing over money to buy items he did not have.

He had also run up internet and phone bills and when each communications company in turn cut him off for non-payment, he started an account with another at the same address under a different name. Altogether he conned his way to £17,857.

“This may be regarded as some kind of confidence fraud, characterised by the degree of planning and multiple transactions,” Judge Shaun Spencer QC said as he jailed Dockerty for 12 months.

Dockerty, formerly of Burton Stone Lane, York, and now of North Marine Road, Scarborough, pleaded guilty to nine charges of fraud and asked for 15 more to be taken into consideration.

His 46 previous convictions include nuisance calls to the emergency services that were so persistent, York magistrates banned him under an ASBO from dialling 999 except in a genuine emergency, and domestic violence towards his current partner.

Dockerty’s solicitor, Julian Tanikal, said of the frauds: “I very much doubt if he has come up with this behaviour by himself,”

He suggested that someone else may have been involved as Dockerty was “susceptible” to peer pressure.

He had learning difficulties, a very low IQ and a personality disorder that meant he had problems with his personal relationships, he said.

Mr Tanikal said Dockerty was now trying to control his behaviour and had moved out of York to Scarborough in a bid to make a clean break and start a new life.