A university dropout who told his girlfriend's family he was a high-flying stockbroker before swindling them out of £800,000 has been jailed for four years.
Matthew Burgess, 32, had 'delusions of grandeur' that he was a 'superstar trader' dealing in foreign currency on the stock exchange - telling girlfriend Megan Howorth's father he worked for a London investment bank and promising him riches.
In reality Burgess, of Bournemouth, Dorset, had no trading licence, was a failed business studies undergraduate, and squandered half a million pounds on himself, his gambling habits and repaying debts.
He also lost £289,000 on 'incompetent' attempts at trading - and in the process took in victims including Mr Howorth, along with Mr Howorth's partner, twin brother and nephew, his partner's ex-husband, and family friend Austin Steele.