A TAXI fare dodger, who said he worked for investment bank JP Morgan as part of a scam deceiving cab drivers, has been ordered to pay the money back.

Jake Dean, 24, took cabs in Brighton, Peacehaven and London before telling drivers he did not have the money to pay them.

The fraudster promised he would pay them the following day but instead strung them along with promise of payment. He was later sacked from sales job in Canary Wharf over the scam.

Dean was given a 12 month community order and made to pay back the fares amounting to over £500 at Brighton Magistrates Court yesterday morning.

The court heard on December 30 last year Dean hailed a cab from Hove to Peacehaven, before asking the driver to take him to Brighton.

Dean flashed the driver £100 in cash to reassure him, but then told the driver he did not have fare because he needed it for an overnight stay at a hotel. He arranged to sell a games console to settle the £100 fare, but the driver never heard from him. 

The court also heard Dean scammed a driver in London and told him he worked for investment banking firm JP Morgan, and his boss would pay up at Croydon station. When his 'boss' did not turn up, Dean agreed to pay the £256 at the cab office the next day, but it never came.

In an earlier hearing Paul Edwards, prosecuting, said: “He was driven to the ATM but his cashpoint card didn’t work and he agreed to transfer the money on taxi app Hailo but the money was never paid.

“Dean had given details of his ‘employers’ but when the driver phoned JP Morgan they had never heard of him.”

The following day Dean conned a driver out of £130 when he hailed a cab from Waterloo Station to South Coast Road, Peacehaven. Later that month on February 27 he hailed a cab from Peacehaven to Brighton, and told the driver his card would not work at the ATM. But Dean never paid the £25 he promised the next day.

In mitigation, Dean said: "I was working in sales in Canary Wharf. Due to the fraud, I have lost my position. These four mistakes were my own fault and I am very sorry for what I’ve done.

"I never did it maliciously as I was impulsive and I was always trying to get the money together, rather than not paying the drivers when I had the funds available. I would like to apologise to the drivers as they were just doing their job."

Now working as a manual labourer Dean added: "I would like to put the story straight as The Argus has affected my employment. I went for a job interview with a sales company and they saw it in the paper, I did tell them about it. They were also asking about my mental health issues which were plastered over the internet."

Dean of South Coast Road, Peacehaven, pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining services dishonestly.

Sentencing chair of magistrates John Tierney said: "The fraud offences are so serious it is enough to make a community order for the four charges." 

He was given a 12 month community order with the requirement for 80 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £511 in fares owed to the drivers and £120 in court costs.