Telford holiday conman gets two years

Christopher Bonney obtained thousands of pounds to support himself on the continent having failed to attend court more than seven years ago.

He used an internet website in 2005 and 2006 to get victims to pay cash for the hire of holiday property in Spain and France that did not exist.

Recorder Mr Nigel Daly told Bonney he was a professional conman and it had been an organised and sophisticated internet scam. "The offences were committed while on bail and when you had absconded and used the monies to support yourself while on the run," he said.

Bonney had admitted three offences of obtaining around £1,300 from payments made into his account in 2006 for deposits or hire fees for the non-existent properties.

He also admitted obtaining £850 by deception in December, 2005, by claiming he had four Motorola mobile phones for sale.

Bonney had 10 other similar offences between March and May 2006, involving around £5,500, taken into consideration.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court this afternoon Bonney, formerly of Woodside, Telford, was jailed for two years – to run consecutive to the five-year sentence imposed for similar offences in March last year.

Mr Kevin Jones, prosecuting, said that Bonney, aged 45, had been due to be sentenced in 2005 for similar offences, but left the country and was at large until February last year when he was arrested in France and in March was jailed for five years.

He said that having failed to attend court in 2005 Bonney used the internet to get £850 for the phones and used a management company website for the holiday property offences. Mr Jones said Bonney used a bank account in his mother's name but there was no holiday property.

He said it was a sophisticated fraud with receipts for the money and booking confirmations being sent out to the victims.

Miss Sarah Cooper, for Bonney, said her client had fallen into the trap of this type of offence and had got 'a kick out of it', but wanted to apologise to the victims.