'Student' conman obtains £10,000

7:48pm Thursday 24th January 2008

A CONMAN posed as a student to obtain almost £10,000 in loans, a court heard.

David Jones, aged 32, of Hardy Mill Road, Harwood, used the identities of his brother and a friend to con a student loans organisation.

Today he pleaded guilty to obtaining money by deception, attempting to obtain money by deception, and making a false representation.

Susan Carter, prosecuting, said Jones stole the birth certificate of his brother Anthony, and applied for an HND course at Bolton University during the 2005/06 term.

He used the birth certificate to obtain a student loan, and when the loans company stopped one of the instalments because he was not attending his course, he forged a letter from the University to trick the company into sending the rest of the cash.

He then repeated the scam the following year 2006/07 using the identity of his friend, Andrew Barcroft.

Miss Carter said that he stole a total of £9,487.

The scam was only detected when a clerical worker at the student loans company recognised his northern accent and thought it sounded similar to someone else.

She then checked the documents he had sent and his scheme was uncovered.

The forged letters had been sent to the loans company via a fax machine from Harwood Library. The court heard that Jones was a recovering heroin addict with previous convictions for deception and burglary.

Andrew Costello, defending, said: "Sophistication would be a word that comes to one's mind when looking at this. He is someone from a fairly privileged background, but that doesn't mean he is any less addicted to heroin."

Recorder Jonathan Finestein said: "You went to great lengths with birth certificates and then forging letters. One sees in these courts the real horrors of drugs, you are still a relatively young man, you are intelligent and you can make something of your life."

Jones was given a nine month jail sentence to be suspended for two years with two years supervision, and was ordered to attend a further drugs rehabilitation course.

A Proceeds of Crime hearing will take place on April 22.