A notorious conman who has "committed fraud at every opportunity" has been jailed after his latest ploy targeting Nottinghamshire homeowners.
Kevin Castle, 56, of Birkin Avenue in Radcliffe-on-Trent, went to multiple people's homes around the county and accessed their postbox located a distance away from their property.
He broke into these letterboxes, stealing post and creating credit cards in his victim's name so he could withdraw money and fund his own lifestyle.
He later admitted to 42 different offences which cost various banks around £90,000 - taking total losses due to his criminality to the sum of £100,000.
Police estimate Castle may have targeted over 130 victims over a year, from July 2020 until August 2021.
Nottingham Crown Court was told that Castle first targeted a rural property in Nottinghamshire near the end of 2020, with the homeowner receiving documents for credit cards she had not paid for.
One of these had racked up a balance of £8,000, while another card had £3,377 of unpaid debt.
Police later found items at Castle's home which had been purchased using these cards such as home improvement supplies, toys and clothing.
He targeted a number of other people across Nottinghamshire, applying for various cards and even being caught in the act trying to extract mail from people's postboxes.
The court was told on these occasions, Castle would drive away with the boot of his car unclosed, to try and obscure his number plate from view.
However, one man who came out to confront Castle noticed his boot had slammed shut by itself as he speedily drove away - and passed this number plate onto police, who were then able to arrest the notorious conman.
Another woman even hid in the bushes at her home to record Castle and catch him in the act, confronting him before he again drove away with his boot still up.
He was first arrested by police in April 2021, then released under investigation, before going on to attempt to commit further scams - all while he knew police were already aware of his activities.
When he was first arrested, officers carried out a search on his home address and found two mobile phone. One phone was analysed and it was found more than 100 different sim cards had been used.
These sim cards had been used to open up several different accounts with banks, Nottingham Crown Court was told.
He was arrested for a second time in November 2021 and answered 'no comment' in both of his police interviews.
Simon Eckersley, mitigating, told the court that Castle pleaded guilty to the offences at the earliest available opportunity.
Judge Godsmark QC told Castle: "You commit fraud at every available opportunity to do so.
"You are a professional fraudster."
Nottingham Crown Court was told Castle had been found guilty of a number of similar offences back in 2012, 2014 and 2017.
Castle has previously been nicknamed the "millionare shoplifter" and then the "Casanova conman" after wearing designer clothes and dining in fancy restaurants, The Express reports.
He pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud by false representation and one count of theft and was sentenced four years and eight months imprisonment at Nottingham Crown Court - he must serve half of this sentence before he is eligible for release.
Detective Sergeant Marc Lancaster, of Nottinghamshire Police’s dedicated fraud team, said: “This whole operation run by Castle was targeted, pre-planned and calculated fraud committed against victims who had no idea he was using their identity to apply for credit cards.
“He not only targeted one person but continued with his fraudulent behaviour for months and in an effort to evade being seen or traced would drive away quickly with his car boot open - showing just how planned his behaviour truly was.
“This type of offending is extremely personal in nature and causes significant amounts of distress to the victims not just financially but emotionally, often leaving the victims feeling completely betrayed.
“Thanks to the help of his victims, post office workers and our officers we were able to gain so much evidence to haul Castle up in front of the courts and I’m so pleased with the outcome that will see him now serve time behind bars for his actions.
“Fraud can have a truly devastating impact on its victims and Nottinghamshire Police will not tolerate this kind of offending and I hope this case shows just how serious we take any reports of fraud made to us and how much work we put into a case to bring the offender to justice.”
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