£1.8m conman tricks his way out of prison

AN “ingenious” fraudster who tricked prison staff into releasing him is facing a return to jail.

Wandsworth PrisonGETTY

Moore faked a letter saying he had been bailed from Wandsworth jail

Neil Moore, 28, was on remand at Wandsworth Prison, southwest London, for fraud offences totalling more than £1.8 million when he sent a letter to wardens posing as a clerk manager at Southwark Crown Court.

The letter, saying he had been granted bail, led to him being set free in March last year.

Moore engineered his escape after using a mobile phone to create a website and domain name similar to that of the court service.

Investigators, helped by Homeland Security in America, later discovered that the website was set up using the name of Det Insp Chris Soole, the officer who had been investigating Moore.

Ian Paton, prosecuting, said: “Having been remanded in custody by the court…he promptly set about adapting his skills for deceit, dishonesty and forgery and he engineered his escape.”

London’s Southwark Crown Court was told the escape came to light when Moore’s solicitors went to HMP Wandsworth to talk to him three days later.

Moore contacted his representatives the same day and surrendered himself.

Moore used up to four aliases to commit the frauds worth a total of £1,819,000, sometimes putting on a woman’s voice

He pleaded guilty to escape from lawful custody as well as eight counts of fraud in which he posed as staff from banks including Lloyds, Santander and Barclays to dupe major organisations into handing over significant sums of money.

The court heard that Moore used up to four aliases to commit the frauds worth a total of £1,819,000, sometimes putting on a woman’s voice.

He was so convincing that his transgender partner Kirsten Moore was initially believed to be involved in the scams and faced charges alongside him, although these were later dropped.

Mr Paton said: “The case is one of extraordinary criminal inventiveness, deviousness and creativity, all apparently the developed expertise of this defendant. He committed the frauds in various guises.”

The judge, Recorder David Hunt QC, described Moore’s criminal activity as “ingenious”.

He adjourned sentencing on Moore, from Ilford in Essex, until April 20.

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