A “Walter Mitty” fraudster who cheated friends and others out of more than a quarter of a million pounds while on court bail has been jailed for the second time.

Nicholas Aaron Whiteside, 29, falsely claimed to have cancer among other lies he fed his victims.

Brooke Morrison, prosecuting, told York Crown Court that Whiteside's lies reduced an Army veteran of 22 years and nine Northern Ireland tours to a nervous wreck unable to write. 

They also left victims so short of money they had to work past retirement age or became estranged from family and friends because they had believed Whiteside’s lies and recommended him to them, Ms Morrison said.

In total he cheated 21 people out of money with false promises of selling them Apple technology or persuading them to lend him money for business opportunities he said would pay good income.

In some cases, the money he stole led to victims’ small businesses collapsing putting their employees out of work, the court heard.

Throughout the 29-year-old serial fraudster from York was on bail awaiting sentence for other frauds totalling more than £100,000 that police said in 2022 had brought “misery and anguish” to other victims.

When The Press and other media published stories about his 2022 sentencing his latest victims realised the truth and went to police.

“This demonstrates a complete lack of remorse and repentance for his earlier lifestyle and fraud,” one of them told York Crown Court.

Ms Morrison said that four more people from South Yorkshire have complained to the Fraud Action Line about Whiteside since he was charged with the £273,000 frauds and that his first fraud conviction was in Birmingham in 2018 when he was 22.

Whiteside shook throughout the most recent sentencing hearing.

His barrister Benjamin Knight said he had been traumatised by a “serious offence” committed against him while in prison serving the three-year sentence imposed in 2022 for 18 frauds totalling more than £100,000.

But while in prison he had appreciated the impact his criminal actions had had on others, and he was now a completely different person, living a law-abiding life earning £55,000 a year in Human Resources.

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The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris called Whiteside a “Walter Mitty” character.

“You started defrauding people at a very young age and you haven’t stopped,” he told Whiteside.

The fraudster had known when he was sentenced in London in 2022 that he had continued defrauding people whilst on bail. But through his barrister, Whiteside had told that judge he had learnt his lesson and was sorry.

“Everything I have heard today (about you), I wonder if it is true,” Judge Morris told Whiteside in the most recent hearing. “That is how people are going to regard you for the rest of your life.”

He jailed Whiteside for two years and eight months.

Whiteside, formerly of Chancery Rise, Holgate Road, York, pleaded guilty to 21 offences of fraud by false representation. He moved to Osburn Road, Kiveton Park, Rotherham, after his release partway through the three-year sentence imposed in 2022.

Ms Morrison said Whiteside conned 19 people with false claims that he had Apple products for them at reduced prices.

When they handed over money, he didn’t give them the products but fobbed them off with excuse after excuse including that he had cancer, which persuaded some victims to feel sympathy towards him.

In some cases, he partially refunded victims to keep them off his back. In total, his lies netted him £155,000 and after his refunds, his victims together were out of pocket by £104,000, the court was told.

He persuaded the ex-soldier and another man to hand over £117,980 to invest in new businesses he claimed would provide “considerable interest”, said Ms Morrison.

But that was a lie and he again fobbed the two people off with excuses including the cancer lie. He refunded part of the money but still kept £43,000.

Victims of both frauds told the court how trying to contact Whiteside “took over” their lives as they made scores of phone calls and sent endless emails on a daily basis, but didn’t get their money back.