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Search forDisabled conman given 51-week jail term for deception over cars
Wednesday, December 03, 2008, 13:05
Roy Tanner posed as a car insurance executive and promised his victims he could get them cars at a cut down price if they gave him cash.
The 52-year-old, of Welton Road, who met the men at the Avon Coach Park Cafe, in Bath, was reported to police when he failed to deliver their motors.
He later admitted two charges of obtaining property by deception and asked for two further offences to be taken into consideration when he was sentenced.
Richard Posner, prosecuting at Bristol Crown Court, described Tanner as a conman who tricked four men out of a total of £2,875 between September 6 and October 2, this year.
He said the defendant, who has a medical condition affecting his right leg and walks with a limp, had been committing offences of dishonesty since he was 20 years old and had committed nearly 50 offences of deception since the age of 25.
The court heard Tanner had last been in the dock in January 2007, when he was handed a 51-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, for four offences of obtaining property by deception.
He had conned sums of up to £600 out of his victims by convincing them he was a repossessed car dealer.
He had 21 weeks left of the suspended term when he committed his latest offences.
Timothy Hills, defending, said his client said he had taken his victims' cash to a car auction but lost confidence.
Tanner claimed each car had exceeded his maximum bid and he put the cash in his bank account.
He said he would repay his victims.
Mr Hills said Tanner had remarked: "I'm disabled. I wanted to show people I can do things."
Activating Tanner's suspended sentence and jailing him for 51 weeks, Judge Michael Longman said: "I take into account your disability, but having said that you really are the author of your own misfortune.
"You have a choice whether to deceive people or not and consistently over many years you have made the wrong choice.
"You have behaved dishonestly and conned people out of their money."
He also ordered Tanner to pay his victims a total of £2,875 compensation.
