A SERIAL fraudster who posed as a wealthy businessman to help him trick investors out of more than £145,000 has been jailed for five years.

Kevin Willington, from Buckland, near Faringdon, got people to put money into a non-existent cash machine business after advertising in a national newspaper.

The 56-year-old used the money that came in to pay off his debts and fund his lifestyle.

A jury at Oxford Crown Court convicted him of 25 charges of fraud after a two-and-a-half week trial.

Police began investigating Willington after Michael Haywood, from Wales, complained he had given him about £73,000 in 2006 and 2007, but got nothing in return.

Willington also persuaded Barry Gribben, from Northern Ireland, to hand over £74,250 in 2008.

Willington was arrested in June 2008 and charged with money transfers by deception and fraud by misrepresentation in June 2009.

Dc Rob Underhill said: “He presented the facade to his victims that he was a successful businessman working in the ATM sector, but in reality he was someone who had a history of defrauding people.”

He added: “Once he had taken enough money from someone he moved on to the other victim.

“He presented the lifestyle of a legitimate businessman with an income of about £100,000 a year.”

Dc Underhill said neither of the victims was likely to get their money back.

He said one of the victims had invested a large part of a redundancy payment. Dc Underhill added: “He was almost in denial about what he was doing. He showed no remorse.”

Willington was jailed four years ago after posing as a travel agent and conning a holidaymaker into paying twice for a trip to the Algarve in Portugal.

He was jailed for two years at Salisbury Crown Court in April 2007 after he was convicted of two charges of obtaining a money transfer by deception.

His sentence was cut on appeal to 18 months.

In 2009, he was given a suspended 42-day prison sentence after being found guilty of not paying more than £3,800 owed in council tax.