A PHONY car salesman who defrauded 32 customers out of £50,000 using the website Gumtree has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Waheed Hussain Butt promised to deliver cars to clients after selling them on the free site but on several occasions never delivered them and failed to issue refunds.

When customers sent deposits or full payments to Butt he promised delivery within days but when he didn't the 49-year-old, from Wincanton Road, pretended refunds had been made by cheque.

Those who did receive cars often ended up with faulty ones and were offered more expensive ones in exchange as part of a new deal which resulted in more of the victims' money being taken.

Passing sentence, Miss Recorder Rona Campbell said: “You are a thoroughly dishonest man.

“While on police bail you had the temerity to continue offending knowing the police were investigating you.

“The victims were ordinary people who could not afford to lose the money paid and suffered stress and sleepless nights. There was a high culpability and significant planning was involved.”

After his arrest on July 27, Butt admitted 23 charges of fraud by false representation under the Fraud Act 2006 and was sentenced at Reading Crown Court on Thursday, October 13.

It followed an investigation which started in the summer of 2015 by Reading Council's trading standards team who then passed information to the police before his arrest in the Autumn.

“This is a great example of successful joint working between the council's trading standards team and the police,” said Cllr Paul Gittings, the lead member for consumer services.

“I want to congratulate all teams involved for their outstanding work in this investigation and hope it acts as a deterrent to other would be fraudsters out there.

“This unscrupulous man lied and left his unsuspecting people not only out of pocket, but in some cases with faulty cars.”