A BOURNEMOUTH man is on the run after he was sentenced to five years in prison for a complex fraud of around £1 million.

David Robinson, 35, was one of three men to be sentenced after police discovered their scheme to buy internet airtime from BT before selling it on to clients.

His partners in crime were 26-year-old Ross Faulkes, from Brighton, and Mark Thompson, 59, from Worthing.

The three were given a total of 12 years' imprisonment at the Inner London Crown Court on Friday.

Detectives from the City of London Police Fraud Squad found out the trio bought Voice over Internet Protocol airtime from BT, Wavecrest and The Exclusive Group on credit, selling it abroad using a hijacked company, known as CADCORP.

Clients used the protocol to make internet-based calls from the UK to Zimbabwe and the Middle East, which the three had engineered to be make the calls untraceable.

The bill for the calling credit was never settled with any of the companies who first sold it, and much of the £1 million was blown on expensive hotels and supercars.

An arrest warrant has now been issued for Robinson, of Southbourne Coast Road, who was sentenced to five years in his absence. He is now believed to be in Thailand after fleeing overseas, a City of London Police spokesman said.

He and his co-conspirators were arrested in December 2012, after BT reported the case to officers the January before.

Detective Sergeant Nick Kemsley, who led the investigation for the City of London Police, said: “Thompson, Robinson and Faulkes believed they had created a highly technical and untraceable scam that would enable them to spend a million pounds of another company’s money without ever paying it back.

“Unfortunately for these three men, the City of London Police specialises in investigating complex cases of fraud and has an excellent record of delivering successful prosecutions. Thompson, Robinson and Faulkes can now be added to the ever lengthening list of fraudsters who convinced themselves that they were too smart to be caught and have now ended up with a jail-term.”

Kevin Brown, British Telecom VP Threat Intelligence and GES Transformation, added: “This is an example of a complicated fraud committed against BT by an organised gang of criminals. BT will always rigorously pursue those who attempt to defraud BT and will assist and support the police in order to do so. It will take all possible steps to recover losses resulting from criminal acts committed against it, using relevant legislation to seek compensation from those involved.”