A CHEATING Best Man fleeced his closest pals by pocketing cash from a stag party while lying that he had cancer.

Martyn Galvin's deceit was only discovered when the party of 17 lads turned up at the airport to discover their flights to a wild weekend in Prague had not been booked.

Galvin, 30, had pocketed the £7,945 they had handed over to him after preparing a cover-up story that he had terminal bowel cancer.

Jailing Galvin, a judge described his con as "one of the meanest I have encountered in my time in criminal law".

Galvin claimed to be organising stag dos to Prague and York Races for a school friend he had known for 18 years.

In fact he pocketed the cash he received from the lads and poured it into his own gambling habit and extravagant spending.

The stag group of 17 reached Newcastle Airport to discover no flights or hotel rooms had been booked, leaving them high and dry.

Galvin had falsely told the groom he had been treated for bowel cancer, and that it was terminal, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The betrayed groom said: "I was beyond devastated. The fact he could do that to everyone is beyond belief.

“I felt like I was living the script from a soap drama and it tore me apart that Martyn used the most important day of my life to get money for himself.

“I’m mortified that the biggest conman I’ve ever known was the person I asked to be my best man.”

Prosecutor Jenny Haigh said Galvin volunteered to arrange the two stag parties as it was the “best man’s duty”, contacted the groom’s friends and set up a Facebook page.

They were meant to enjoy a three-day trip to Prague in August last year, followed by a trip to York Races in October.

As the nuptials neared, Galvin claimed he had tests and an operation for bowel cancer and needed radiotherapy.

As it was revealed there were no plane or hotel bookings on August 28, the groom still thought it was a “wind-up” or “mix-up”.

Galvin’s mother broke the news to the shocked stag that his best friend did not have cancer.

Galvin, from Yarm, near Stockton, later admitted fraud by false representation between January and October 2015.

He had a 2008 conviction for a bizarre fraud where he staged a robbery to steal £600 from his employer.

Duncan McReddie, mitigating, said Galvin was truly remorseful and he and his family had saved money to compensate the 23 victims in full.

He told how Galvin had a long-standing gambling addiction which he put above the needs of others, but for which he had since got help.

Mr McReddie said the cancer claims were lies, but Galvin did have a “chronic digestive problem”.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, jailed Galvin for 20 months and ordered him to pay the full compensation in 28 days.