A MAN has been jailed for three and a quarter years after tricking a couple out of at least �15,000 in a fraud carried out at Stansted Airport.

Terence Sergeant was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court after he admitted the offence and other deceptions carried out around Merseyside.

The court heard that Sergeant had answered an Ebay advert submitted by a couple from Bishop’s Stortford for a woman’s emerald and diamond ring that had originally been valued at �20,000.

During negotiations Sergeant said he would pay �15,000 in cash and offered to travel from his home near Liverpool to meet the seller’s husband at Stansted Airport.

But on the morning of the planned handover on Saturday June 18 2011 Sergeant said he would have to pay with a banker’s draft which the couple were happy to accept. The document was later found to be a worthless fake.

Extensive investigations were carried out by Essex Police detectives and Sergeant was later identified when an appeal for information and an airport CCTV image were published by newspapers on Merseyside.

Sergeant, 54, of Shakespeare Road, St Helens, admitted a total of 16 offences and was sentenced on Monday September 24. The other frauds involved selling stolen cars and buying high-value vehicles using fake banker’s drafts.

Investigating officer Dc Jean Seager said: “We are pleased that Sergeant has received a suitable sentence.

“He was responsible for committing a number of frauds throughout the UK costing many people a lot of money.

“Our victim lost a valuable ring which was being sold to raise funds to assist her disabled son. This money was lost which is sad in any situation, even more so when it could have been used for such a good reason.”