A fraudster who conned his victims out of more than £18,000 will have his sentence suspended as long as he pays back all of his victims, a judge has announced.

Stephen Stokes, 31, of Arterial Road, Wickford, targeted victims as far apart as Witham, Romford, Edmonton, Bexleyheath and Croydon. Other victims’ addresses were withheld in court.

He committed the crimes to feed his alcohol and gambling addictions, Basildon Crown Court heard.

Stokes used a string of fake names to contact his victims on Facebook Marketplace, then used images of fake bank transfers to trick them into thinking they had been paid.

His crime spree lasted more than a year before he was finally apprehended in South Woodham Ferrers, behind the wheel of a white BMW, on February 11, 2023.

Stokes gave police a fake name – John Murphy – and then tried to escape, but officers caught up to him and he was arrested. Two of his victims picked him out of identity parades.

He was charged with 27 counts of fraud and two counts of theft, of which he eventually pleaded guilty to 19 offences.

He admitted defrauding the victims in those cases out of £18,050 in total.

The Crown Prosecution Service is not pursuing the remaining charges.

Prosecutor Peter Walsh told the court that Stokes’s crimes had spanned “a fairly extensive geographic area, over a long period of time”, beginning in October 2021 and continuing until his arrest in February 2023.

“What the defendant did was reply to advertisements which had been placed on Facebook Marketplace,” said Mr Walsh.

“These advertisements had been placed by individuals offering for sale high value items such as laptops, Apple iPhones, Galaxy phones, games consoles and the like.

“The defendant would them meet up with these individuals, sometimes with a second person, using different vehicles.

“He would use his mobile phone, pretend that a transfer had been made at the agreed price and even showing the victim his mobile phone which he said proved payment had been made.

“Needless to say, Your Honour, no transfer was ever made and the defendant would then leave with the advertised item in his hands and that would be the last that each of these victims would see of him.

Mr Walsh said Stokes would give the victims what he said were his address and phone number and even allowed them to take photos of him.

He told them that it was normal for bank transfers to take a few hours to come through.

The victims were “totally taken in”, the prosecutor said.

When challenged over the non-payments, Stokes would block the sellers.

In a victim impact statement, one said: “I feel nervous on the street in case the defendant is there. He knows my address and phone number. I’m concerned for my family’s safety – particularly my younger sister.”

Another victim said they had been left with “a lot of stress and anxiety”.

“I was left feeling extremely angry and embarrassed, having been conned… I am left unable to trust strangers,” a third said. “We were left having to pay the finance on a device we never intended to keep. I was unable to sleep properly for a number of days… The loss had to be paid for using our savings.”

Mitigating for Stokes, defence barrister Christopher Surtees-Jones said: “I don’t shy away from it – these are unattractive offences. They clearly are.”

But he said they had occurred against a backdrop of his client’s gambling and alcohol addictions, which he had since addressed, and problems in his marriage.

He added that Stokes had offered to repay all of the stolen money from his savings, plus loans from friends and family, within three months.

That, the lawyer said, was “a clear indication of the remorse and in fact the shame that he feels.”

He said the offences had brought “not only shame to himself but to the wider community of which he is a member as well, which has its own difficulties. He’s aware of that. He’s alert to that.”

Letters of support were supplied to the court, including from the Gypsy and Traveller League, a charity with which Mr Surtees-Jones said Mr Stokes was now working.

The charity’s CEO John Riley sat in the public gallery, supporting Mr Stokes.

Judge Richard Conley said he was “having a little difficulty accepting the suggestion that Mr Stokes would be in a position to discharge all of this compensation”.

“It’s a bit difficult for me to swallow,” he said, adding that he was concerned it could encourage Stokes to commit further offences.

“I don’t want to be in a situation where he’s robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak,” he said.

But he said that “with some hesitation” he was deferring sentencing for three months.

He ordered Stokes to hand over £3,000 within two weeks and the remaining £15,050 by the week before his sentencing hearing in January.

He also ordered Stokes to continue working with the Gypsy and Traveller League three days per week.

He said that if Stokes was even £1 short, he would receive two years’ immediate custody, but if he met the judge’s conditions, the two-year sentence would be suspended.