A serial fraudster who carried on his illegal activity after he was given another chance has been jailed.

Paul Murray, 43, used other people’s names to take out finance on two cars - even though he was too big to fit behind the wheel.

He also sold a £1500 watch and a camper van online - but never delivered the goods, and used a vulnerable man’s cheque book while he was in hospital recovering from a stroke.

Murray, of Roding Green, Walney, pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud and appeared at Preston Crown Court for sentence.

Recorder Kate Bex, sentencing, said: “Your history of fraud and dishonesty goes back many, many years.”

However she accepted it was unlikely Murray was acting alone as he was unable to drive the vehicles, due to his size.

She said: “At a variety of times you sought to evade responsibility by saying people were trying to buy things from you lawfully and coming up with a variety of different excuses in your interview and even going as far as blaming the victim in one of your offences.”

The court heard in November 2017, Murray advertised the watch on eBay, using another man’s name, insisting he was paid through direct banking. But once the funds were cleared, Murray withdrew £800 cash and the man’s account was locked down.

The watch was never delivered and the police were called in.

Weeks later, Murray used the same man’s chequebook to buy a camper van, claiming the man named on the cheque book was his father in law.

But once the ownership was transferred, the cheque bounced, and the owner faced recovery costs.

The original owner managed to get the van back - but not before Murray had agreed to sell it to another man on Gumtree for £1500 cash.

Murray pocketed the cash, but when the buyer tried to arrange collection - on eight separate occasions - Murray made excuses.

Eventually the buyer had to call off his plans to do voluntary work in the USA a result of the fraud, the court heard.

Murray was arrested and in August 2018 claimed the first man he had conned had wanted to sell the watch to pay off debts.

Three weeks later he took out finance on a Ford Focus using another man’s details. The man only learned he had been conned when a letter came through the door about a car he had no knowledge of.

Four months later he committed an almost identical fraud - this time taking £19,995 finance for a Ford Focus, which he then exchanged for a BMW and £3,000 cash.

Recorded Bex activated Murray’s previous 18 month suspended sentence and added an additional 57 weeks to run concurrently.

The court heard the Ford Focus was recovered and £730 was paid back to the man who bought the watch. The owner of the campervan managed to recover his vehicle.