A conman who tricked Good Samaritans in Huddersfield out of money by saying he needed a locksmith has been jailed for 72 weeks.

Leeds Crown Court heard Faisal Ahmed Chaudhry knocked on doors in various areas claiming to have just moved into their neighbourhood.

He would give a false name and say he had managed to snap his key in his front door lock and needed to get hold of a locksmith to get inside for his belongings.

“He was very friendly and persuasive with each complainant and asked to borrow some money,” Stephanie Hancock prosecuting told the court.

Usually he asked for about £60 promising to return it later, but sometimes depending on how the victim came across to him, it would be for more.

The crime spree began in December at a house in Birkby Lodge Road but that was followed by a series in April by which time he had been arrested and bailed following an offence in January in Rastrick.

He had taken a 79-year-old Alzheimer sufferer to a cash machine where £300 was withdrawn but a woman who saw them was suspicious and when Chaudhry unwittingly dropped his driving licence she was able to pass it to the authorities.

Miss Hancock said he was therefore on bail on April 10 when he gave his story to a 65-year-old man living in Edgerton Green who not only gave him some cash but took him in his car to an address near a locksmith. The same night Chaudhry repeated his story to a man in Bleasedale Avenue, Birkby who gave him £80.

His story was persuasive enough to get another man living in Beaumont Park into a taxi with Chaudhry to go to a cash point to help him, said Miss Hancock. On the journey that man realised he had some cash on him and handed over £95 to the conman who then dropped him back home.

He continued with his account on April 12 when he visited an address in Mountjoy Road, Edgerton and April 13 when he repeated it at a house in New Hey Road but neither females involved gave him anything.

But that same day April 13 he called at the home of a 77-year-old man in Marsh who not only gave him £40 but called a taxi for him.

He continued his activities calling at two more addresses in Gledholt and Lindley on April 15 and 16 without success before he was caught. He had managed to obtain £645 in total of which £355 was still outstanding.

The court heard he had a previous conviction for similar offences and had mental health and drug misuse problems.

Joanne Shepherd representing said he was living apart from his family when the offences occurred. Following the Rastrick offence £210 had been found on him and he had handed over a further £80 to police for the man concerned.

Chaudhry, 32 of Clare Hill, Huddersfield admitted 10 charges of fraud.

Judge Sally Cahill QC said there had to be immediate imprisonment. “You are clearly a man who has enormous problems with your domestic situation, problems with drug abuse and mental health but you are a man who has appeared before courts for exactly the same type of offending in the past.”