A fraudster from Tunbridge Wells who met a woman on a dating website and then duped her into giving him thousands of pounds has been jailed.

Jaswant Gohil, of Victoria Road, boasted online he was an established businessman and single, with a sizeable income and lifestyle to match, when in fact he was a compulsive gambler and living with another woman.

After first making contact with his victim in August 2013 the 57-year-old convinced her he wanted a long term relationship and they started seeing each other.

Gaining her trust, he promised her substantial profits if she took out a loan for £25,000 and invested it into a business venture he claimed to be involved with.

He provided documents to support the business entity and her role in it, giving projected earnings which would enable her to quickly pay off the loan.

However, the company never existed and Gohil was instead spending the money on clearing gambling debts, as well as booking flights and holidays.

the con-man convinced the victim to take out further loans, even persuading her to use her home in Southampton as security.

In total she lent him around £33,000 which was never returned.

The victim was left in debt, unable to meet loan repayments and when she subsequently challenged Gohil he confessed he was already in another relationship and had no intention of setting up home with her.

He was arrested in June 2016 and appearing before Maidstone Crown Court where he denied a charge of fraud, between December 2013 and April 2014.

He was convicted following a trial and sentenced on 7 June 2018.

Judge Martin Huseyin said: "You treated the victim appallingly, gained her trust, abused it and acted like a leech. You exhausted her credit and then dropped her and moved on."

Detective Sergeant Richard O’Toole added: "The victim was utterly deceived by Gohil’s cruel and manipulative actions. It is unlikely that she will be compensated for her losses and sadly she is likely to suffer the financial consequences for many years.

"We would advise anyone thinking about giving money to someone they may have met online, or who they have recently met and don’t know that well, to carry out checks and gain independent advice before passing any money over."