A quick-talking conman who intimidated and confused betting shop cashiers into believing he had won bets has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

John O’Connor, 33, managed to fool staff in bookmakers all over London into handing over around £10,000 in cash over 18 months from July 2012.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard how O’Connor, of St Mary's Road in Ealing, conned staff in Hillingdon, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth and Westminster.

The conman even travelled to Essex, Nottingham and Manchester to commit crime.

He used a number of what the betting industry refers to as ‘slow count fraud’ tactics to fool them into believing he had won bets when, in some cases, he had not even paid his stake.

Tactics included placing a bet, then distracting the cashier, sometimes with the help of accomlices, by asking questions, becoming rowdy or placing a series of small, obscure bets at the same time.

This would allow him time to see if his runner was likely to win.

If it won, he would hand over his stake and claim the profit, or else pretend he had already paid and ask for his winnings.

He would then place the non-existent stake on another bet.

If he lost, he would leave without paying the stake.

Ladbrokes reported the offences to the Metropolitan Police Service in April 2013, after he carried out the con at a branch on Oxford Street, Westminster.

Detectives circulated CCTV images of him to police services around the country and he was arrested in Hertfordshire in July 2014.

O’Connor was charged with 15 counts of a fraud by misrepresentation, to which he pleaded guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court on November 24.

While on bail, awaiting sentence, he carried out the same offence at William Hill on Tyburn Road, Edington, Birmingham on December 28 2014.

It is believed that he may have carried out the scam on many more occasions.

Yesterday, he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for two years for 16 counts of fraud by misrepresentation.

He was also given a 12-month supervision order and a four-month alcohol treatment order.