A FRAUDSTER who conned his bosses out of nearly £200,000 to prop up his failing model airplane business has been jailed for three years.

Gary Madgwick filed false invoices for radiation and health and safety checks while working for consulting and design agency McBains Cooper, which has an office in Oxford, an Old Bailey judge was told.

The senior project manager, 52, continued his deceit for two years before it was finally noticed by his employers.

McBains then discovered that Madgwick, of Charlton Road, Wantage, had used a false reference to get the job and had two previous convictions for fraud from 1989.

Madgwick, a lifelong model airplane enthusiast, is now trying to sell his house and his business The Aviation Workshop in an attempt to repay the stolen money.

Judge Paul Worsley QC told Madgwick on Friday : “In my judgment you are a thoroughly dishonest man.

“There has to be a day of reckoning and a custodial sentence.

“You secured your position with McBains by submitting a false reference.”

Madgwick had earlier admitted three counts of fraud.

He was sentenced to two years imprisonment on the first count and 12 months’ imprisonment on the other two counts.

The 12-month sentences will run concurrently with each other but consecutive to the two-year sentence.