A “manipulative” fraudster who falsely portrayed himself as a millionaire businessman in order to trick his victims out of thousands of pounds has been jailed.

Aidan Sinclair, from Greenhithe, even offered one victim tickets to the Ascot races in the Royal box to get him to hand over his cash.

Between 2020 and 2022, the crook forged bank statements, contracts and other documents to win the trust of three people he targeted.

One of the victims was a neighbour of Sinclair’s at the time who he persuaded to invest in a company that did not actually exist.

He also told her he was in the process of buying a multi-million-pound property and that he could help her to secure her own mortgage on a house.

The 61-year-old invented a string of reasons why he required money from the woman to help him do so, resulting in her giving him more than £18,000 in total.

Some of this was returned to the victim by her banks, although she still made an overall loss of more than £9,000.

The second victim worked in the financial sector and was introduced to Sinclair by a mutual associate.

Sinclair tricked the man into believing he had £5million in an offshore account after presenting him with a falsified bank statement, and even offered to book him tickets to Ascot in the Royal Enclosure.

The man agreed and transferred the money across but the tickets were never purchased and Sinclair kept the funds for himself.

In addition to work the man carried out on Sinclair’s behalf but was not paid for, he lost a total of around £36,000.

A third victim was a director of two companies that Sinclair had said he was going to invest £6 million in, and had signed a contract confirming his intent to do so.

However the cheques he sent bounced and at one stage Sinclair said he required a £45,000 release fee in order to send the funds, which the victim did not pay.

The incidents were each reported to Action Fraud and led to Kent Police arresting Sinclair at the two-bedroom flat where he was living in Havelock Drive, Greenhithe, in August 2022.

He later pleaded guilty to several fraud offences and at Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday (October 15) Sinclair was sentenced to three years and two months in jail.

He is quite simply a criminal who has not a shred of remorse for the people affected by his crimes

Investigating officer Detective Constable James Burr said: “Aidan Sinclair is a manipulative and dishonest individual with a history of offences, who causes financial hardship to his victims.

“Whilst he goes to great lengths to believably portray himself as a wealthy and successful businessman, he is quite simply a criminal who has not a shred of remorse for the people affected by his crimes.

“I hope this case sends a strong message to everyone that you should only give money to an individual or organisation if you are absolutely certain they are who they say they are.

“Always remember the ABC rule to fraud prevention – never Assume someone is telling the truth or Believe what they say unless you are confident of their identity, and always Confirm the details they have provided.

“If something does seem too good to be true, then it probably is.”