'Walter Mitty' conman posed as rich playboy RETTAUDACEYONC

A FRAUDSTER who boasted of buying a £1.85million Grand Designs pile while swindling £275,000 from his victims actually rented a caravan and relied on handouts from his mum.

- Paul Jeeves

Layne Perry, 39, masqueraded as a millionaire playboy, claiming to earn £80,000 a year as a professional gambler while flying helicopters and riding with the local hunt.

But in reality the ex-soldier was a jobless Walter Mitty character, living by the seaside in Porthcawl, South Wales, and reliant on £2,000 a month from his mother.

Trusted

A court heard he "flashed the cash' to impress a widow and a married couple who believed they shared his love of the countryside and horses.