FRAUDSTER Kerry Nurse is back behind bars after his second conviction within seven years for fraudulent trading.

The 41 year old rogue trader fleeced unsuspecting motorists of thousands of pounds after pretending to fit reconditioned engines into their vehicles.

Nurse, 48, of Pound Road, Chatteris, was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to 11 counts of fraudulently claiming to carry out work on cars, stealing vehicles and taking cash.

He also now faces further confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act after police estimated he had benefited to the tune of �50,000 by his criminality.

Det Con Harvey Nutton co-ordinated last year’s raid on Nurse’s Chatteris premises and was at Cambridge Crown Court on Friday to see him sentenced.

“Three years is a good result for motor theft offences,” he said. “The judge made the comment that Nurse had been ‘at it’ since he was 18. The court heard he had his first conviction 20 years ago.”

Det Nutton said police were alerted to Nurse, as they had been in 2002 and 2003, by trading standards. As the latest investigation got under way more and more people came forward to describe how Nurse had ripped them off.

“Nurse was basically a con man,” said Det Con Nutton. “He purported over the phone to be an international car export specialist but in reality he was a fraudster.”

Police found evidence that Nurse had advertised under various names and in many newspapers and magazines and his victims came from all over the UK.

Up to 60 complaints were at one time being investigated and Nurse was originally charged with 19 offences before this was whittled down to the 11 to which he pleaded guilty.

“My advice is quite simply that if an offer is too good to be true then it probably is,” said Det Con Nutton. “Always get a receipt, get it in writing what you want, ensure it is a re conditioned engine being fitted and always deal with a legitimate business.

“And don’t pay until you are satisfied with the workmanship.”

In 2003 Nurse was jailed for a year at Kings Lynn Crown Court after pleading guilty to six offences under the Trade Descriptions Act.

The judge told him at that hearing that “the public have a right to expect honest and accurate information and not be preyed upon by the likes of you dodgy dealers.

“You have previously convictions for dishonesty and you have not learnt from these convictions.”

*Engine supplier Dennis Ford of Manea had earlier been acquitted of one charge involving the theft of a BMW X5 to which Nurse had pleaded guilty. Sentencing of Nurse had been put back pending the outcome of that trial.