A SERIAL conman was jailed for 14 months for conning tenants out of their rent.

Kevin Christie was living in a rented property in Aylesbury Road, Bournemouth, in August last year when he tricked a fellow tenant who had recently arrived into transferring her rent money into his account.

The 48-year-old, who is known by 24 different aliases and has 45 convictions for 177 offences of dishonesty and theft, had one payment of £460 transferred into his account by his victim, Jeanne Barbagallo.

An earlier payment had been stopped by her bank.

Prosecutor Rob Welling said Christie was then given notice to leave by his landlady Susan Levitts, however he advertised his flat for letting in a local shop, and took a deposit and rent payment from a further victim – Daniel Marszalek – by posing as the landlord.

None of the money transferred has been recovered, Mr Welling said.

Judge John Harrow described his actions as “despicable and impudent”.

“Your victims were upset and at least inconvenienced by what you did,” he said.

“You seem to have no regard for the impact of your behaviour upon other people.”

In mitigation, Tom Hill said Christie was “very embarrassed” by his long criminal record.

“He has expressed his wish to change his behaviour. One change in his life which has led to this re-evaluation is that recently he has had a son, who is now eight months old,” he said.

“He is now very much engaged in his family life and wants to stay out of trouble in order to care for his child.”

Christie, of Argyll Road, Bournemouth, admitted two counts of fraud by false representation. He was handed a seven-month jail term for each, to be served consecutively.