A notorious conman who has “committed fraud at every opportunity” has been jailed after his latest ploy targeting Nottinghamshire homeowners.
Kevin Castle, 56, of Birkin Avenue in Radcliffe-on-Trent, went to multiple people’s homes around the county and accessed their postbox located a distance away from their property.
He broke into these letterboxes, stealing post and creating credit cards in his victim’s name so he could withdraw money and fund his own lifestyle.
He later admitted to 42 different offences which cost various banks around £90,000 – taking total losses due to his criminality to the sum of £100,000.
Police estimate Castle may have targeted over 130 victims over a year, from July 2020 until August 2021.
Nottingham Crown Court was told that Castle first targeted a rural property in Nottinghamshire near the end of 2020, with the homeowner receiving documents for credit cards she had not paid for.
One of these had racked up a balance of £8,000, while another card had £3,377 of unpaid debt.
Police later found items at Castle’s home which had been purchased using these cards such as home improvement supplies, toys and clothing.
He targeted a number of other people across Nottinghamshire, applying for various cards and even being caught in the act trying to extract mail from people’s postboxes.
The court was told on these occasions, Castle would drive away with the boot of his car unclosed, to try and obscure his number plate from view.
