A man convicted of an attempted $20 million con against ACE was fresh out of prison for looting an MP's bank account of almost $80,000, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Maxwell Roberts, who posed as an ACE director during his latest scam, pretended to be Michael Dunkley during a previous con against financial institutions in November 2003.

He also attempted to gain a bank draft for more than $1 million, and was handed a four-year sentence for the crimes in 2004.

Mr. Dunkley said the fact that history had repeated itself demonstrated a clear need for prison reform.

"This is a very public case of a gentleman who's going through that revolving prison door. Not only does punishment need to be there, but rehabilitation too," he said.

Roberts, 40, was said by Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo to have spent his time behind bars for the Dunkley scam plotting the crime against international insurance and reinsurance company ACE.

He pretended to be a company director called Richard Strauss during his latest con attempt on September 6 this year.

Despite being caught red-handed, he blamed the crime on the mysterious "Mr. Strauss" and a sidekick called "Kenneth Stevens" who he said hired him as a messenger.

Convicting Roberts last week, Mr. Tokunbo branded him "an actor with a massive criminal imagination".

He ordered a psychiatric report to be done before sentencing him, saying he believed he had a problem.

Roberts has a string of previous convictions and jail terms for offences of dishonesty.

Reacting to news that the crook tried to swindle ACE less than 24 hours after his release following the crime against him, Deputy Opposition Leader Mr. Dunkley said: "It's a very unfortunate situation.

"I'm disappointed that, so soon after being released, he's up to the same shenanigans as before. Clearly incarceration has not helped this gentleman in any way.

"We need to look at the bigger picture. In too many cases we are locking people up, but when they get out a lot of them are going to go back to the things they did.

"There's got to be a better way than locking people up for them to do the same thing again. He's got an illness and needs help. It's been countless man hours in Police time and in the criminal justice system to get a conviction. This revolving door has not helped us in any way."

Calling for more emphasis on rehabilitation rather than just punishment, Mr. Dunkley said: "I have been saying all along that it's fine to incarcerate people — I'm not saying get soft — but there's help that can be provided to try to resolve the issues that they face. There's a lot of opportunity but it's not used in the right way. A person can go to Westgate and dilly dally. We need solid work programmes for them depending on the kind of problem they have."

Roberts is currently in Westgate awaiting sentence on December 28, and faces up to five years imprisonment.