A York businessman has admitted defrauding 21 people out of a total of more than a quarter of a million pounds.

It is the second time Nicholas Arran Whiteside, 28, has been convicted of large-scale fraud.

In early February 2022, he was jailed for three years at Inner London Crown Court for 18 frauds totalling £100,000.

Those frauds were carried out in 2018 and 2019 and involved targeting a health club by setting up a corporate account for 200 employees, a car garage over the hire and use of an expensive car, and a letting company over the renting of apartments across York.

Now The Press can reveal that in 2021 and 2022, until just days before he was locked up, Whiteside was defrauding people out of tens of thousands of pounds each by getting them to pay for Apple equipment he had no intention of supplying them with.

He was also persuading people to hand over money that he falsely claimed would be invested. Together the new charges total £273, 409.

Whiteside, formerly of Holgate Road, York, and now of Osborne Road, Kiveton Park, Rotherham, pleaded guilty to 21 charges of fraud by false representation when he appeared before York Magistrates' Court.

District judges and magistrates can only sentence defendants for a total of 12 months. Whiteside’s case was sent to York Crown Court where he will be sentenced by a crown court judge who will have the power to jail him for up to 10 years.

He will appear before the higher court for sentence on June 10. Whiteside, who is currently on prison licence, was released on unconditional bail.

When he was sentenced in 2022, Detective Sergeant Kyle Boad, of North Yorkshire Police’s York and Selby investigation hub, said: “Nicholas Whiteside has caused nothing but misery and anguish to the many victims he has targeted over the years, including those in York and North Yorkshire and around the country.

“Motivated solely by greed, he has lied and cheated his way at every turn with the ruthless intention of defrauding innocent people and businesses.”

Together the 2024 charges say that Whiteside defrauded 21 people out of a total of £273,409 between June 1, 2020, and January 28, 2022.

One victim was conned out of £25,700 by Whiteside’s lies about Apple equipment, others lost £21,600 and £23,669. In total Whiteside used his lies about Apple equipment to gain £155,429.

He conned one victim out of £70,000 and another out of £47,980 by false claims about investments. The investment frauds were committed between July 2020 and February 1, 2022.

Nineteen of the charges state that he committed fraud in that he dishonestly made a false representation to a victim receiving payment for Apple equipment which he had no intention of supplying, intending to make a gain.

Two state that he committed fraud in that he dishonestly made a false representation to a victim by obtaining payments by falsely claiming it was an investment opportunity, intending to make a gain.