A CONFIDENCE trickster who lied his way to almost £100,000 and left behind a trail of misery has been jailed.

Roy Moyse broke down in tears in the dock but received no sympathy from the victims watching.

The 40-year-old conned people from Bournemouth, Poole, Wimborne and Ferndown after befriending them and getting them to loan him money.

Some of them laughed in disbelief as a letter pledging his determination to pay the money back was read out to Bournemouth Crown Court.

Moyse, from Monks Way in Bearwood, was sentenced to three and-a-half years for offences stretching from 2001 to 2007.

The story started when he was a regular drinker at the Bear Cross pub in Kinson and he became friendly with landlord, Paul Nippard.

Moyse told Mr Nippard he was selling a fabrication business and repeatedly asked for loans until the sale was completed.

Mr Nippard was sucked into losing £60,000 - the debts cost him his job, his house, he could not afford to send his daughter to university, and he suffered a heart attack in 2005.

Moyse got another £10,000 from Deborah Arenas by telling her he needed money for legal fees on a will - she was so in debt she forged a cheque and got a criminal conviction.

He secured £11,000 from Ladbrokes worker Susan Turner by saying he needed money until a business was sold.

These victims and others said Moyse appeared friendly and confident in smart suits and hire cars - but he was juggling massive debts and living with his parents.

At one point he paid 8p into his bank account then doctored the cheque to read £8,078 to convince a victim he was still solvent.

Moyse admitted taking £97,200 though the original charges totalled £143,000 - and that did not include cash loans the victims could not prove they had made.

Even after his arrest he befriended Lisa Williams in a Parkstone wine bar in August 2007 and told her he was a barrister buying a flat in Sandbanks - he again asked for loans, though a not guilty plea to a fraud charge of £11,000 was not pursued by the prosecution.

Fern Russell, defending, said Moyse had not set out to deceive but had been caught in spiralling debts after being made redundant in 2002 from a previously successful job.

And she said he had not been living a life of luxury, and that he accepted responsibility for his actions.

Judge John Harrow told Moyse: "You are an accomplished confidence trickster and you have pulled that trick over many years against a large number of trusting victims."

Moyse pleaded guilty to five counts of obtaining money by deception, possessing a forged cheque, and making off without payment for £932 from Rhinefield House Hotel, Brockenhurst, from his own wedding reception.