A PROLIFIC fraudster who caused "misery and anguish" to many people as he cheated his way to more than £100,000 has been jailed for three years.

Three police forces worked together to bring Nicholas Arran Whiteside, 26, of York, to justice for his scams against individuals and companies.

In 2018 and 2019, Whiteside conducted fraudulent operations targeting rail ticket providers, retail outlets, a health club and individuals including his work colleagues.

DS Kyle Boad, of North Yorkshire Police’s York and Selby investigation hub, said: “Nicholas Whiteside has caused nothing but misery and anguish to the many victims he has targeted over the years, including those in York and North Yorkshire and around the country.

“Motivated solely by greed, he has lied and cheated his way at every turn with the ruthless intention of defrauding innocent people and businesses.

“His offending is truly abhorrent, and he deserves nothing less than a significant period of time in prison.”

Whiteside, of Holgate Road, York, pleaded guilty to 18 charges of fraud and was jailed for three years at the Inner London Crown Court.

The court heard how he targeted a health club by setting up a corporate account for 200 employees, a car garage to hire and use an expensive car and a letting company to rent apartments across York.

He used fraudulently obtained bank cards to book more than 100 train tickets via Trainline’s website.

His activity forced Trainline to issue chargebacks which resulted in tens of thousands of pounds in losses for the company.

Whiteside also conned retail outlets in Sheffield by purchasing pre-paid gift cards from Meadowhall Shopping Centre with fraudulent bank cards.

He used these gift cards to purchase high value items such as laptops and iPads.

He also targeted individuals, by offering heavily discounted tickets for travel and entertainment to his work colleagues in the summer of 2019.

By the time they identified the tickets as fake, Whiteside had resigned from the organisation.

Det Con Adrienne Curzon of British Transport Police, said: “Whiteside’s relentless offending targeted an array of individuals and businesses, he had no set victim and aimed to defraud anyone he could for his own financial greed.

“I hope he spends his time behind bars wisely and considers a new career path on the right side of the law for when he returns to the community.”

Det Sgt Sam Erabadda, of South Yorkshire Police’s fraud coordination team, said: “This was a considered campaign of deceit in which Whiteside acted with complete dishonesty and defrauded a number of blameless victims out of significant sums of money.

“I hope this sentencing will act as a warning to anyone else carrying out organised fraudulent activity, and to any others who may in the future try to abuse and exploit innocent people and businesses trust.”