A STAMP dealer is behind bars for his "breathtaking dishonesty" in ripping off pensioners - even while on bail.

Philip Clarke, who committed nine crimes as he awaited sentence for 15 other offences, was jailed for 21 months.

The 60-year-old from Boscombe either failed to pay people or offered them a fraction of the true worth while selling on stamp collections.

Victims included housebound Bournemouth man Eric Piper, whose collection was worth £350, and dealer David Allen from Doncaster, who was cheated out of £12,678.

Beryl Lion Davies from Wareham handed over £20,000 worth of stamps for evaluation. But Clarke sold them on without asking, offering her just £5,000. Winton Salvation Army was cheated over £175 worth of stamps donated to fund a mission to the Ukraine.

Judge John Beashel told Clarke at Dorchester Crown Court: "The dishonesty is simply breathtaking."

Clarke, who ran Boscombe Stamp Company from his home in North Road, admitted offences involving £30,524, though £17,236 has since been repaid.

In 1998, a judge jailed him for 18 months and said he'd carried out a "blatant and callous" swindle of a similar kind from the shop he ran at that time, Bournemouth Antiques in Holdenhurst Road.

The court heard Clarke repeatedly promised cheques were in the post or found excuses for not paying his victims, mostly elderly people, who he sometimes claimed owed him money for advice.

One set of stamps worth £500 belonged to a man in his 90s in a nursing home.

Clarke failed to turn up to court for numerous sentencing hearings last year, claiming he was sick with severe angina, though Judge Beashel noted he was well enough to carry on committing crimes.

And the court heard Clarke tried to reverse his guilty pleas to the 15 offences even as he was committing more.

Judge Beashel said: "There's plain evidence of cynical and totally dishonest behaviour."

Clarke told police most of the stamps went to a dealer in Salisbury and another in The Strand, London.

Carys Owen, defending, said Clarke, a married father of two daughters, had not set out to cheat people but had run his business badly and ended up lying to try and trade his way out of trouble.

She said: "He is genuinely ashamed of his behaviour. His marriage of 37 years is in a very difficult position because his wife was totally unaware of the degree of difficulty he had got himself into."

The court heard he had convictions for 23 offences, including trading as a bankrupt.

Judge Beashel's sentence was reduced because the defence said he suffered "severe ill health".