A fraudster who dreamed of launching his own airline has been jailed.

Adam Dovey, 23, conned people using the internet auction website eBay by selling them digital cameras or expensive mobile phones.

He persuaded buyers to put the money straight into his bank account but never sent the items out.

At Canterbury Crown Court yesterday Dovey, of Trafalgar Road, Portslade, Brighton, was sentenced to ten months in jail.

Judge Adele Williams said she was making an example of Dovey to deter others from carrying out internet cons.

His former wife Susan Dovey, 25, said their four-year-old daughter Emma had been devastated.

She said: "I told her daddy had done something naughty and the policemen had put him in prison so she won't be seeing him for a while. I had to tell her, there was nothing else I could do.

"He was so sure he was going to get away with it. He said he was going to sue the police for defamation."

Only last month Dovey announced he was launching an airline with a 19-year-old entrepreneur, Daniel Reilly.

He admitted he had finished school at 15 and had been kicked off his business studies course at Hove Park School and Sixth Form Centre in Nevill Road. But he said he was confident the airline would work.