Claridge's conman is jailed for two years

A man blew £140,000 he made from a simple scam involving stolen DIY goods on a 28-day stay at Claridge's.

Kevin Castle, 43, made between £500 and £1,000 a day by getting money back on shoplifted items such as door knobs using forged till receipts. He targeted stores including Homebase and B&Q from where frequent small cash refunds added up to a lavish lifestyle for him and his girlfriend.

As well as the stay at Claridge's where he dined at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, he ate at The Ivy and Le Caprice and hired cars such as a VW Touareg 4x4, a Porsche Cayenne and several Jaguars.

Castle, who earned the nickname the "Millionaire Shoplifter", bought Armani and Versace suits and paid £1,000 per week for a flat in Knightsbridge on a 10-month tenancy.

He was caught as he tried to get a refund for a packet of door knobs at Homebase in Altrincham, Cheshire. In his Jaguar police found 28 packets of Homebase doorknobs and a map showing 300 shop locations.

He used a variety of disguises, posing as an electrical engineer, alarm fitter and property developer, and wore blocks in his shoes to boost his height of 5ft 5in as he went from shop to shop claiming refunds.

Castle's fraud first came to the attention of police in 2004 when he attempted to obtain a refund using a fraudulent receipt at the B&Q store in Bamber Bridge, Preston.

He managed to escape but was detained soon after in Nottinghamshire after attempting the same deception.

A year later he pleaded guilty at Preston crown court to four counts of obtaining property by deception at Homebase stores. This led to police investigating the financial affairs of Castle and his then partner, Elaine Rogers, 47.

Despite Castle being an undischarged bankrupt paying no income tax and Rogers earning £70 a week as a part-time shop assistant, there were four years of large cash deposits in her account.

In April 2006 Castle was arrested again. A complete till roll was found by officers at his home. Castle was granted bail as police scoured CCTV footage from DIY shops across the country.

He went on the run and police eventually caught him near Nottingham in February this year. Castle, of Stapleford, Nottingham, who has 17 previous convictions for 60 offences, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to 11 counts of obtaining property by deception and money laundering. He asked for 76 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Sentencing him to two years and four months at Preston crown court today, Judge Phillip Sycamore said: "You have an appalling record of offending, almost exclusively for offences of dishonesty."

Detective Constable Dot Walker said: "Castle and Rogers have lived the high life for many years, living off the proceeds of crime."

Rogers was given a suspended sentence at an earlier hearing.