to prison for nine months yesterday.

Stuart Gladstone Durham, 42, of Warwick, pleaded guilty in Magistrates' Court last December to conning two people out of rent for apartments that did not exist.

He also admitted accepting $6,587 to pay for a car which he did not own and the "buyer'' never received and swindling money out of several people for car repairs which he never carried out.

In addition, Durham asked the court to take eight similar cases into account.

Durham said he scammed the money to support a "serious heroin addiction''.

Magistrate the Wor. Cheryl Ann Mapp ordered a social inquiry and adjourned sentencing pending its outcome.

His lawyer Mr. Christian Luthi said he had no previous convictions and had come clean with Police about who his victims were.

Of five cases of theft and one case of false pretences he committed between March 8 and July 21, he netted $10,788.50 and only $380 was recovered.

In another set of cases, he admitted five further thefts and one more count of false pretences, all occurring between September 6 and November 21.

Together with eight similar offences he asked the court to take into consideration, they involved nearly $8,000.

There were believed to be further victims who had not come forward.