AN INTELLIGENT man invented sophisticated scams to con local businesses out of nearly £10,000 to feed his crack cocaine habit, a court heard.Dennis Raghuwan pretended to work for Anglia Television, a pop band, and a bank to swindle the companies.

AN INTELLIGENT man invented sophisticated scams to con local businesses out of nearly £10,000 to feed his crack cocaine habit, a court heard.

Dennis Raghuwan pretended to work for Anglia Television, a pop band, and a bank to swindle the companies.

Raghuwan, who has many alias names, used stolen credit cards and chequebooks from closed accounts to pay for the goods, and got taxi drivers to collect the items so he would not be detected, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Richard Wood, prosecuting, said the 43-year-old had pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining property by deception amounting to £9,942 between October 2002 and July 2003.

Although he was arrested in September 2003 he failed to surrender to bail and was at large until February 2005.

Mr Wood said that on October 10, 2002, Raghuwan, of Rue Des Jeunes, Braintree, telephoned Computer Connections in Sudbury stating he was from Anglia Television and the Shiny Black Kitten Company and he wanted to buy a Samsung laptop computer for £950. The cheque bounced.

On February 10, 2003 he telephoned Alders in Ipswich and said he was David Jenkins from Anglia TV and wished to buy two television sets worth £1,200.

He paid on a credit card in the name of Frasle.

On February 29, 2003 he contacted Stannards of Stowmarket and told them he was Paul Tucker from the lighthouse Family pop group.

He ordered a plasma screen television for £4,100, but the store said they could not authorise that transaction, so he bought a £2,000 television instead.

The following day he telephoned the same store and purchased two JVC televisions and DVD players, costing £1,096. A credit card in the name of David Williams was used.

The next day he bought two more televisions and DVD players for the same price, but the owner of the store became suspicious and contacted the record company Raghuwan claimed he worked for and the fraud was discovered.

In July 2003 the defendant contacted Renault Agriculture in Brockford, Suffolk, and said he worked for Anglia Television.

He enquired about two children's quad bikes and arranged for a money transfer to take place through his and the company's banks.

He later telephoned the company's HSBC bank stating that he was a member of staff from Natwest who needed to organise the money transfer.

The quad bikes were collected by a courier and the company realised later in July it had been conned when the money failed to reach the bank.

Mr Wood said Raghuwan had a number of similar previous convictions for fraud and dishonesty.

Tony Wyatt, mitigating, said his client had developed an expensive crack cocaine addiction after his father and then his mother died.

He added: "He accepts he will never be free of addiction, but he is in control of it. He use to work on the outskirts of show business but this exposed him to more drugs because of that particular type of industry. Now he is trying to qualify in the legal profession."

Mr Wyatt said Raghuwan had contacted the Law Society and they had said he may be able to change his career when he is released from prison.

He said the Metropolitan University had also accepted his client's application, and he added that Raghuwan had been reunited with his daughter and this had motivated him to stop taking drugs.

Mr Recorder Alan Steynor said: "It seems to me it was a well thought out scheme over an eight month period. The nature and skill of these offences are so significant that there has to be a substantial sentence."

Raghuwan was jailed for three years.