Michael Higgins, 42, of Livingston, West Lothian, fraudulently obtained a total of £18,225 from 15 victims between 2020 and 2022 by concocting a web of deceit.

One woman he met on an online dating site was conned out of £6,160 after he lied to her about needing funds to help his sister with large vet bills for her cat.

Higgins told another woman he could obtain cheap computer products through his work with a finance company.

But despite handing over £350 for an Apple iPad Pro, she never received the item.

And he persuaded an OAP he met through her work with a loan company to transfer £6,490 of her own money after he claimed he needed cash to attend a private hospital in London for an operation.

His elderly victim made 127 cash transactions to him over a two-year period.

He also duped several friends into transferring hundreds of pounds into his bank account with promises of cut-price golf rounds at St Andrews Old Course which never materialised.

Higgins was sentenced to three years and 10 months’ imprisonment at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to 10 charges of fraud and one charge of embezzlement.

Lynne Barrie, procurator fiscal for Lothian and Borders, said: “Michael Higgins perpetrated a series of calculated deceptions, defrauding his victims out of substantial sums of money in order to fund his gambling habit.

“He callously exploited the trust of friends and women he met online, manipulating and deceiving them into handing over their savings. He will now face the consequences of his actions.

“This conviction demonstrates that those who commit offences of dishonesty and target vulnerable victims will be brought to justice.”

The court heard how Higgins befriended some victims after meeting them at golf clubs and claimed he could arrange for them to play at St Andrews’ Old Course if they paid him £145.

The men then transferred hundreds of pounds into Higgins’ bank account, but the promised rounds of golf never took place. Higgins also took several payments totalling £1,475 from one friend who had been deceived into believing he was paying for a three-day golf holiday to Spain.

After meeting two partners through online dating sites such as Bumble and Tinder, he quickly began asking them for cash. After being arrested, an examination of Higgins’ bank accounts revealed most of his victims’ deposits were used on gambling websites.