A serial conman from Shropshire who duped his victims by telling them he had won a fortune on the euromillions lottery was behind bars today.

Graham Hinton

Smooth-talking Graham Hinton, from Shrewsbury, befriended his victims who let him stay at their homes where he would fleece them of jewellery, cash and cars.

Hinton was described by his lawyer in court as a “con artist with a long history, a good old-fashioned confidence trickster who tells people he has won a fortune on the EuroMillions”.

The 52-year-old ex-Army man ripped off people nationwide, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Hinton was jailed for a total of four years and nine months after admitting nine dishonesty charges.

Prosecutor Mr Howard Phillips told the court Hinton was a “thoroughly dishonest man, a professional conman”.

The court was told Hinton befriended a so called “old family friend”, an 81-year-old woman with bowel cancer, in Shrewsbury.

Mr Phillips said Hinton would do her cooking, gardening and take her shopping – but all the while he was fleecing her out of nearly £3,500 by using her chequebook to buy things.

Mr Richard Crabb, defending, said his client knew the victim’s credit card pin number, but chose to use her chequebook because banks often reimbursed people for cheque fraud but not card fraud when the pin number had been disclosed.

Hinton moved to North Wales where he conned others before moving on to the south west,doing the same.

One in North Wales was an ex-Army man and Hinton said he had won some money and was “clearing his head” after a divorce, the court was told.

The court heard the man let Hinton stay at his home for several weeks as he tried to win over local people saying he “won large sums of money” and wanted to buy a £500,000 farm.

But he ended up disappearing a car and jewellery, which the court heard was worth £25,000. He sold it for just £380 and it was never recovered.