A notorious conman who has spent most of his life in prison is back behind bars after a sceptical judge rejected pleas to give him a chance to prove he had mended his ways.

Jailing 55-year-old David Aves for 27 months, Recorder John Akast described his criminal record as “shocking” and told him: “Not only have you wasted your life, you have probably taken several hundred thousand pounds of other people’s money with no intention of returning it.”

Recorder Akast said Aves’ list of 160 convictions was “some of the most persistent offending” he had ever seen and that he had no idea if he was conning the court when he claimed he intended to change his ways.

“You have spend a lifetime fleecing the public. You are getting a bit old for this. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life in custody?” said the judge.

Aves, of Freewood Street, Bradfield St George, admitted three offences of fraud by false representation involving £16,000 he obtained from members of the farming community by selling a combine harvester and a tractor he didn’t own.

The offences were committed between October and December 2012 and the combine harvester was “sold” to two different farmers.

Also before the court was Anne Mason, 54, of Nottingham who admitted money laundering by allowing Aves to use her bank account to process payments from his scams,

She was given a four month jail sentence suspended for 12 months and 12 months supervision after her barrister Ian James told the court his client wasn’t the prime mover and hadn’t benefitted financially from the offence.

Guy Ayers, for Aves, said his client acknowledged he had an “abysmal” record.

He said that during his long list of court appearances there had only been two occasion when he hadn’t been given a prison sentence.

Mr Ayers said Aves was keen to change his ways and had come up with a plan for a business venture. “It’s not something he can use to rip anyone off,” said Mr Ayers.

He said that following the death of his mother Aves had inherited her house and even after he had paid a court confiscation order of around £200,000 he would be solvent which would reduce his incentive for reoffending.

Mr Ayers urged the court to pass a sentence that would allow Aves to show he had changed his ways.