A CONMAN who swindled £20,000 out of 12 single women he met via internet dating sites has been jailed for three years.
Self-employed tyre-fitter David Brice, from Fishponds Road, gave himself the name “Mr Cheerful” as he sought out vulnerable victims to hoodwink, Bristol Crown Court heard.
His would meet them and get as much as he could from them before dumping them in Bristol and then denying all knowledge of them.
At one point he left a 30-stone woman on the side of the road having told her they were stopping to go into a house. She had to call an ambulance to take her to Temple Meads.
Another victim, who was persuaded to buy Brice a laptop, was abandoned in a shopping centre.
Brice, 43, of Gala House – who sobbed in the dock during sentence – pleaded guilty to 15 counts of theft and fraud from December 2008 to February 2010.
One victim, 50-year-old Wendy Weids from Swindon, was in court yesterday to watch Brice be jailed for two-and-a-half years as well as 11 weeks of a previously suspended sentence and 13 weeks for breaching a community order.
She had given him £3,500 for a Peugeot 307 which never materialised and was dumped in freezing Bristol and had to make her way home to Swindon.
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