A PRIVATE investigator has been jailed for four-and-a-half years after conning hundreds of thousands of pounds out of a string of victims across north Hampshire.

Mark Castley's barrister told a judge at Winchester Crown Court on Friday that her client was "a man who thinks it will only get better, with a Del Boy mentality that 'this time next year we'll be millionaires'".

However, while the 39-year-old trickster posed as a successful businessman and enjoyed a high-flying lifestyle, including holidays in the Seychelles, he was unable to settle many huge debts that he ran up.

Castley, who worked as a private investigator for top Premiership football clubs, including Chelsea and Arsenal, through his company MC Investigators, appeared for sentence before Judge Patrick Hooton having pleaded guilty to six counts of obtaining property by deception and two of evading liability by deception. He asked for 26 other offences to be taken into account.

Charles Thomas, prosecuting, said that Castley, of Botley Road, North Baddesley, near Romsey, set up a "get rich quick scam" that netted thousands of pounds.

Castley offered victims what Mr Thomas said seemed like an "unmissable opportunity for an investment", through helping him buy £115,000 of surveillance equipment, for which he already had a cash purchaser lined up.

He promised those he duped that they would triple their investment in a matter of weeks.

"This was an offer that was to prove very beguiling," said Mr Thomas, who told the court that investors - one of them a top barrister - upon banking cheques for thousands of pounds in "profits", discovered they bounced.

Castley also failed to pay many north Hampshire workers for their goods and services when he set up a children's play centre called Planet Playland, in Evingar Road, Whitchurch, in 2002.

Mr Thomas told the court how one victim, Trevor Harrington, the owner of R H Foster electricians, in Essex Road, Basingstoke, was commissioned by Castley to work on Planet Playland.

Mr Harrington told Castley after initial work that, as he didn't know him, he would need to be paid for the work done so far.

However, while the R H Foster team continued to work at the site, two cheques written by Castley bounced.

Mr Harrington pulled his men off the site having done work for Castley totalling £29,000 - including VAT - for which he was never paid.

Mr Thomas read a statement from Mr Harrington explaining that the effect on his small business had been "terrible".

"This turned a good trading year into one where I was unable to reinvest in the business," said Mr Harrington. "It undid three years of hard work to build up a cash reserve."

The court heard that Castley managed to obtain finance for the Planet Playland project despite having previously spent time in jail for past dishonest dealings - including being given a three-year sentence in 1995 for obtaining property by deception.

Counsel for the defence, Emma Knott, said: "He obtained finance for Planet Playland by hiding the fact that he was effectively bankrupt and had been in prison.

"Not only did he obtain finance by a lie, but he had no idea, in reality, how to run a business. It was doomed to fail from the start and he was never going to be in a position to meet his debts."

Nonetheless, Castley continued to con people out of money through his surveillance equipment scam even after being arrested by the police last April following an avalanche of complaints about his dodgy dealings.

Castley's lawyer told Judge Hooton that her client had since written a "long and frank letter" confessing to past dishonesties and that, besides health complaints including diabetes and angina, Castley had an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

However, Judge Hooton said he was not inclined to listen to pleas for leniency since Castley had enjoyed "holidays in the Seychelles and a good old time on the town" at the expense of his victims.

Sentencing him to two consecutive prison terms - one of two years for evading liability by deception and the other of two-and-a-half years for obtaining property by deception - Judge Hooton said: "This was an utterly disgraceful course of dishonest conduct resulting in a number of people losing £165,000. You are, Mark Castley, an incorrigible con man."

The police are now set to launch a financial probe to try to confiscate money that Castley made from his victims.

DC Andy Waite, of Andover CID, who worked on the investigation, told The Gazette: "Most of the people that Castley conned were ordinary working people in the north Hampshire area.

"They can take comfort in the fact that he has been given a substantial prison sentence."