A TRICKSTER who milked a Pershore man's bank account of over £11,000 has been jailed for two years at Worcester Crown Court.

Royston Bell posed as a businessman making plastic seats for football stadia before inviting Alan Collins to a weekend in London.

After staying at the Mayfair Hotel together and spending a huge amount of money, 65-year-old Bell forged a signature and withdrew £11,300 from wealthy Mr Collins's account, said prosecutor Mark Wall.

He also hired a car, which was not returned to the owners, fleeced a hotel out of services worth £780 and withdrew over £4,000 from a bank after fixing up an overdraft with false details.

Bell, originally from Doncaster and now of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to obtaining a money transfer by deception, obtaining services by deception and taking a vehicle without authority.

He asked for 47 deception offences to be taken into consideration. Bell, who had a number of aliases, was imprisoned early in 1999 for deception but, after his release in the summer, befriended Mr Collins.

Mr Wall said the victim was a vulnerable man with alcohol problems and had been in and out of hospital.

Bell claimed to police that Mr Collins gave him permission to draw money on his account.

Defence counsel Nicolas Cartwright said by his guilty plea Bell had saved Mr Collins from giving embarrassing details of their London trip to a jury.

The defendant had always enjoyed a high standard of living and had found being in jail on remand a real hardship.

Judge Michael Mott described Bell as typical of "a certain kind of conman" who looked respectable and was well spoken.

People he got involved with believed he was genuine but he was a persistent fraudster.