Serial Darlington fraudster jailed for claiming dead mother's pension and eBay Raleigh Chopper scam

Phillip Quinn was jailed for taking almost £2,500 from internet buyers, and collecting more than £4,800 from a pension company.

A court heard the 60-year-old has convictions for dishonesty going back to the 1970s, and has spent time in prison in the past.

Quinn, of Wells Close, Darlington, was said to have been "not thinking clearly" following the death of his mother in March 2010.

His barrister Paul Newcombe told Teesside Crown Court: "It all became a bit to much for him when she died. He was very close to her.

"There were ongoing expenses, there were funeral costs, and he simply dealt with it in a very poor way. He realises it was completely wrong."

Quinn admitted the pension fraud at a hearing in July, and was found guilty of five charges of fraud after a trial last month.

Judge George Moorhouse told the con-man that his "repeated" offending had a "profound" impact on some of his victims.

The customers ordered Raleigh Choppers in 2011 and 2012 - paying up to £540 a time - but the retro bikes were never delivered.

Prosecutor Sarah Mallett told Judge Moorhouse that Quinn's mother, Hilda, inherited her late husband's works pension after his death.

The fraudster had power of attorney as she was looked after in a care home, and did not tell the authorities about her death.

He even opened a bank account in her name after she had died, and got away with the scam until March 2011, said Miss Mallett.

Mr Newcombe described the frauds as "very unsophisticated" as Quinn was jailed for a total of 16 months.

The court heard that he was first convicted of obtaining property by deception and false accounting in 1978.

Three years later he was prosecuted for evading liability, forgery and obtaining property by deception, Miss Mallett said.

He was jailed in the mid-1980s for a series of similar offending, and has convictions from 1990 and 1998, as well as a benefit fraud rap from 2004.