Paul Rigney, 46, a self-employed tax adviser and bookkeeper has been jailed for 18 months after conning a client out of £10,000, while it has also emerged that he tried to claim he was an accountant.

Rigney persuaded one of his clients, to give him two loans of £5,000 while failing to declare he was an undisclosed bankrupt, the Government News Network reported.

The client never got the money back.

Rigney told DTI investigators that he had a letter proving he had told his client of his bankruptcy, but it was found to be a forgery, and he was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

He also committed a second act of perverting the course of justice, by claiming to be an accountant.

Judge Batty QC, said: ‘Anyone who perverts the public course of justice should expect to receive a custodial sentence. I would be wholly failing in my public duty if not to pass sentence of imprisonment as deterrence.

‘There must be some element of deterrence when committed by someone who had attempted to persuade a judge of facts which are wholly untrue.’