A serial conman ripped off four people to the tune of £38,000 during a trip to the island.

Steven Truswell took £3,620 cash from one woman he wooed on a dating website and managed to rent a flat from another woman without paying the £1,900 fee.

Truswell, who went under the fake name ’Oliver Hunter’, also conned another women out of a MacBook Pro computer and an Apple iPhone.

He then left the island in a BMW for which he had not paid.

The 47-year-old, who has a long history of conning people and once escaped jail, appeared before High Bailiff Jayne Hughes on Tuesday.

He pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud by false representation and was committed to the Court of General Gaol Delivery for sentencing.

Truswell’s crimes here began when he emailed a woman in the island who was advertising a flat for rent. Truswell called himself ’Oliver Jamie Hunter’ and arranged to rent it from December 1 for three months at £85 per night.

Truswell arrived at the property on December 5 and lived there until January 9 when he left the island suddenly. The total cost of the stay was £1,900 but nothing was ever paid.

During his stay he told the woman he was looking to start a business and was interested in renting office space which she said her father had available. At this point Truswell was also introduced to an owner of a local car sales company.

Truswell told the man he wanted to buy Porsche and Volkswagen Amarok motor vehicles which the man then sourced. In the meantime Truswell was initially lent a Mini but he was then given a £30,000 BMW M4 on the condition he returned it.

Truswell told the owner he was transferring money for the Porsche and the Volkswagen but was having difficulty with his bank.

However, on January 9 Truswell took the BMW off the island and cut off all contact with the car company owner.

On January 22 Truswell was stopped by police while driving it in Staffordshire and arrested.

As part of Truswell’s story that he was setting up a business here in December, he also convinced one prospective female employee to buy a MacBook Pro 13.3 for £1,728.

He told her he wanted her to be his operations manager and she needed the computer for this.

Truswell then took the MacBook saying he needed to have some software installed but never returned it.

On December 29 Truswell began talking to another woman here on the dating website Tinder, again calling himself ’Oliver Hunter’.

They met and over the next 11 days Truswell managed to borrow £3,620 from her saying he would return it.

He also asked the woman to buy an Apple iPhone 11 ProMax mobile phone for him for £1,299 which he said he would pay back but never did.

Prosecutor Hazel Carroon said that the case involved numerous breaches of trust over a short space of time and should go to the higher court for sentencing.

Advocate David Clegg, representing Truswell, agreed that the case should be committed.

The conman has a colourful history.

Truswell, who is originally from Belper in Derbyshire, was jailed in England for four years in 2007 after he fleeced more than £700,000 from rich clients by setting up a fake business dealing in Manchester United season tickets and corporate boxes at Old Trafford.

However, in October that year he escaped from Kirkham prison and then stole £40,000 from women he befriended under an alias on dating site Match.com.

After being rearrested he was jailed for another 28 months to run consecutively to his four-year term.

But in 2015 Truswell was at it again when he was jailed for three-and-a-half years after swindling three people out of £25,000 with bogus business deals.

Truswell is also wanted with two warrants issued by Cumbria Crown Court and one issued by Merseyside Crown Court in relation to more fraud allegations.

No application for bail was made when he appeared in court and he was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at the Court of General Gaol Delivery on a date to be set.