Judge jails fraudster who posed as the heir to a fortune to con vulnerable friends out of nearly £400,000

One friend of 20 years handed James Chambers £125,000 in June 2019, believing the cash would pay lawyers to unlock an inheritance that never existed. Bankrupt since March 2016, the 48-year-old from Boston Spa, near Wetherby, also spun tales of a £1.4 million life assurance policy and a trust fund he could not touch, taking a combined £365,139 from seven victims.

Prosecutor David Hall called James Chambers 'a greedy and manipulative confidence trickster' who exploited people who befriended him.

Defence barrister Glenn Parsons said the victims were 'kind-hearted people' who accepted James Chambers's lies at face value.

Detective Constable Joanne Richardson warned that befriending fraud shares many similarities with romance fraud.