A fraudster who imitated a woman's voice to trick companies in a £2million fraud and used a smartphone to organise his escape from jail was sentenced to seven years in prison yesterday.

Neil Moore, 28, of Princes Road in Barkingside, was jailed for seven counts of fraud and escaping from prison at Southwark Crown Court yesterday (April 20).

Officers from the Met’s Central Criminal Finance Team began their investigation into Trinidad and Tobago-born Moore in April 23, 2013 after an allegation of fraud was made.

Neil Moore employed a number of different aliases and sometimes imitated a female voice to carry out numerous frauds. 

He used a method known as ‘social engineering’, whereby he called the target company claiming to be a member of the banking sector, usually from their online services or fraud investigation departments, and gained their trust. 

He exploited this trust to obtain customer banking details and used these to make unauthorised transfers from the legitimate company accounts to his own bank accounts. 

These funds were then transferred onwards before the bank could identify the fraud. 

He tricked British and US banking and car manufacturing companies out of more than £1.2 million and $900,000 respectively.

Moore was arrested for fraud when returning to a police station to receive a caution for an unrelated matter. 

While on remand for fraud at Wandsworth Prison, Moore planned and organised his own release over the internet. 

He used a smartphone he had illegally obtained in prison to create a fraudulent website and sent a fraudulent conditional bail notice pretending to be from Southwark Crown Court to the prison. 

He was subsequently released on March 10 last year.

Only four days later, Moore handed himself in to police.

He was today sentenced to five and half years imprisonment for seven counts of fraud and a further 18 months imprisonment to run consecutively for escape of lawful custody.

Detective Inspector Chris Soole said: "Neil Moore's whole life revolved around fraud and he lived his life using numerous aliases and telling many lies. 

“The investigation was complex in no small part due to the numerous identities Moore maintained.

“I would like to praise our partners in the US and Trinidad and Tobago for their prompt assistance, which ultimately helped us put Moore before the courts."