A SERIAL conman who claimed he had £50m in the bank began targeting women through a dating website just days after his release from prison.

Zac Langley, 43, of Yarrow Road in Poole, encouraged his victims to give him tens of thousands of pounds for brand new cars and so-called development opportunities.

He even proposed to one of the women and encouraged her to give up her job after telling her he would build a £4m home for them to live in together.

Langley, who has more than 20 aliases, met first victim Claire Cooper in person at the Bournemouth Pavilion on December 18 last year - four days after his release from prison.

The two had previously met online through website Plenty of Fish.

The defendant told Mrs Cooper, who had recently been through a "painful divorce", that he was serving as an intelligence officer with the Royal Marines and owned two properties in Sandbanks.

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Stuart Ellacott, prosecuting at Bournemouth Crown Court, said Mrs Cooper had been "smitten" with Langley and quickly introduced him to her mother, Muriel.

In early January - as Langley was starting another relationship with another victim, Danielle Allen - he began to borrow money from Muriel and Claire Cooper, claiming he needed to pay for a lifesaving operation for his mother.

He also asked them to buy him a Range Rover Evoque, which he later traded in for a Range Rover Sport, financed by the Coopers, and offered them an 'opportunity' to invest in £725,000 property in Lakeside Road.

The Coopers were able to raise around £32,000 for the development.

Each time he borrowed money, Langley promised it would be repaid in the summertime, when he could cash in shares and dividends due to him from his family's company.

Over the course of around six months, Langley defrauded the Coopers of around £103,000.

From January 2016, the defendant was also targeting single mum Miss Allen through the Plenty of Fish website.

Although he encouraged Miss Allen to pay for artwork, dinners and hotel rooms, to a cost of almost £2,000, Langley put around £11,000 into her bank account - money belonging to the Coopers, the court heard.

Miss Allen believed Langley was a former Marine who was working for the Ministry of Defence.

She also left her job as the defendant told her he would care for both her and her daughter.

Langley was due to appear at Bournemouth Crown Court on Monday for sentence after admitting five counts of fraud and ten of failing to comply with a serious crime prevention order.

However, although he was brought to the court from prison, he refused to be in the courtroom while the sentencing hearing took place.

Mitigating, Robert Grey said Langley had admitted all charges upon his first appearance before a judge.

"He is ashamed of himself," he said.

"That's why he doesn't want to come into court."

Langley, who has 12 convictions for 74 offences - mostly of a similar nature - was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

Judge Fuller said the defendant's offences against Claire Cooper "represent a complete betrayal and a deceitful and scurrilous attempt to extort money from her by whatever means".

"[The defendant] is a cynical manipulator and confidence trickster and a thoroughly dishonest individual," he added.

Langley was previously known as Andrew Mark Penfold, the court heard.

In 2008, he was jailed for four years at Dorchester Crown Court after admitting six fraud and deception offences.

He was also sentenced for eight similar charges dealt with by Weymouth magistrates and he asked for 17 other offences to be taken into consideration.

The court at that time heard that Langley had proposed to three women and swindled them out of more than £60,000 by inventing a string of lies about his supposed luxurious lifestyle.

He told his victims - one of whom worked at a prison where he was on remand - that he had an aristocratic background and worked as a government spy.

Langley, then 30, successfully proposed to all three women and explained his frequent absences by saying he was an MI5 officer.

He also claimed to be a banker, a company director, a member of an Australian wine-making family and a lord.