A conman who tricked rugby club mates and other people into loaning him money has been ordered to pay back more than £17,000.

Ian Gould, 34, was described in Court an a "practised confidence trickster", who was adept at parting people from their money after gaining their trust.

In fact he had been sentenced to 30 months in jail at Bournemouth Crown Court in June 1995 for similar deception offences, but the prison term was later reduced to 15 months on appeal.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday how Gould targeted local rugby clubs as a way of making friends and contacts and became a member of the Baildon club in the mid-1990s.

Prosecutor Howard Crowson said in 1997 Gould set up a business to supply hi-tech carbon fibre products to the aerospace and motor-racing industries and even obtained an industrial unit for his operation

"He would exaggerate the contracts he had in order to obtain money from friends or simply exaggerate the success he was having," said Mr Crowson.

"In one case he was able to obtain money from one of his employees. In reality the business was not thriving at all and there was little effort to ensure that it was."

One of Gould's rugby club friends, Matthew Bradney, agreed to join his business as sales representative, but he was conned into handing over £500 for a training course, which Gould later said had been cancelled, and £1,600 which he never saw again.

Mr Crowson revealed how Gould also got to know Christopher Smithies through the club and deceived him into handing over £1,000 as a deposit on a motorbike and a further £1,000 as business capital.

Mr Smithies did get £600 back after he met Gould in Bingley and persuaded him to hand over some of the money from a "wad of banknotes" he had on him.

In July 1999 Gould moved to Buckinghamshire where he again joined a local rugby club and obtained a further £2,500 from a man he associated with. His other victims were a woman who lent him £4,000 and a garage owner who gave him £5,000 to buy a Mazda sports car on his behalf and never saw the car or the money again.

Gould, who now lives with his elderly father George in Milton Keynes, pleaded guilty to eight offences of obtaining money by deception from five different people.

Judge Peter Armstrong decided against imposing a second jail sentence after hearing that Gould had already served the equivalent of 14 months in custody.

He was told that Gould earned £2,000 a month from his current job and there had been no further offending since the last deception in October 1999.

Gould was ordered to pay compensation totalling £17,350 to his victims and prosecution costs of £750.

He will also have to do 40 hours' community work and be subject to a probation order for two years.