A conman who stole the identities of elderly or dead people to commit a £1million mortgage fraud has been jailed for four years.

Martin Mitchell used the false identities to buy property in Ashford, Folkestone, Chatham and Rye.

When police went to his home in Rye, they found he had an expensive Mercedes CL with the personal number plate G2 MGM.

A judge told 54-year-old Mitchell: "You are a cunning and resourceful fraudster.

"Over a period of three years you carried out a series of sophisticated frauds on various financial institutions, which involved you obtaining money in excess of £1million.

"What is so contemptible and despicable about this is that in order to perpetrate these frauds you stole the identities of people - old people, sometimes either so infirm they couldn’t look after themselves or had already died."

Alan Kent, prosecuting, said Mitchell used the names and addresses of victims to carry out the sophisticated fraud.

He changed his name to Henry Brand in February, 2002, while the man of that name from Ilford, Essex, was still alive and used his details until 2005.

Other amounts obtained for property included £157,000 (Canterbury Road, Folkestone), £181,750 (Radnor Park Gardens, Folkestone), £118,700 (Linden Crescent, Folkestone) and £93,875 (Wellesley Road, Ashford.

He also obtained or attempted to obtain cash on credit cards from stolen identities.

Mitchell admitted 13 charges of obtaining property by deception, three of obtaining services by deception and two of attempting to obtain money by deception.

Judge Andrew Patience, QC, said the affect on friends and relatives of people targeted must have been awful.

Branding the former property agent a "greedy fraudster", he said there had to be a substantial prison sentence.

"You have lost your good name and caused distress," he added.