Festival tickets con artist jailed for eight months

A SERIAL conman with 30 previous convictions for fraud has been jailed for eight months.

John Cardno, 28, from Edinburgh, was told by Judge John Bevan QC that he was close to being “a professional fraudsman”.

At the Old Bailey yesterday he was sentenced for one count of fraud by false representation, after falsely claiming on the website Gumtree that he had four tickets to the V Festival.

Victim Anthony Wadsworth-Hill was conned into paying £720 for the non-existent tickets in July 2010.

Passing sentence, the judge said: “You are close to being a professional fraudsman with 30 previous convictions for fraud.”