A “FUNDAMENTALLY dishonest” man who defrauded a catalogue company and four people connected to a Pontypool football club of nearly £10,000 was given a suspended prison sentence.

When Matthew Saunders started to play for Pontypool-based Fairfield United in August 2012, he told teammates that he worked for catalogue company Shop Direct and could get them items, including iPads, for reduced prices.

He was in fact working as a forklift truck driver, earning £250 a month. But he set up online Shop Direct accounts, took people's money and left the debts unpaid.

University-educated Saunders, 28, conned one teammate out of £560 in cash for two iPads, another of £575, one of the team’s coaches and their partner of £500 and Shop Direct of £8,451.90.

In the case of the coach and his partner, Newport Crown Court heard they had planned to marry this year but had to delay their wedding after they lost their money to Saunders’ scam. They have since been refunded £175.

In passing a 15 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, Judge Mark Powell QC said: “You are an educated man who over three to four months took advantage of the gullibility of people. You are more sophisticated and more cunning than them. You persuaded them you could get items at a reduced rate but had they stood back and thought about it, it was reduced to such an extent that there was something not right about it. I believe you are a fundamentally dishonest person.

“You were brazen in what you did and took advantage of your educational attainment over theirs. By making false claims and setting up false accounts you have caused them inevitable difficulties.”

The judge told Saunders he would have sent him immediately to prison in typical circumstances but had not because any repayment would have been placed in doubt.

Saunders had earlier pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud at an earlier hearing.

Claire Wilks, defending, said he would lose his job if sent to prison and that he has a wife, who works as a nurse, a stepdaughter and a daughter to support.

Initially Saunders, who now earns £37,000 a year as an area supervisor in a family firm, had offered to pay £250 a month but the judge dismissed the offer as “inadequate”.

Saunders, of Cefn Glas, Tredegar, will be required to pay money back at a rate of £500 a month and serve 150 hours of community service, in addition to other service passed down for previous offences.