A "WALTER Mitty"-style con-man duped a Farnham film director's wife out of £35,000, causing the film director to burn down premises rented by the conman's wife and himself be jailed, a court heard last Friday. Fantasist David Port, 51, spent his ill-gotten gains on paying off large debts, luxury breaks, bills and lunches.

He appeared before Guildford Crown Court for sentence having earlier pleaded guilty to obtaining money transfer by deception. Derek Zeitlin, prosecuting, said Port first contacted Melloney Roffe-Barker – whose husband won acclaim for the award-winning film Asylum – in 1998, offering to raise funds for the Farnham Film Company.

He claimed he was a retired investment banker, but the money promised by Port, who was living in the US at the time, never appeared.

Mr Zeitlin said: "There then was no further contact until March 2002 and on that occasion he began to develop a friendship with Mrs Roffe-Barker. This was in order to obtain funds from her by way of fraud."

Port claimed a company run by a friend was in need of a £10,000 deposit and was prepared to pay £5,000 by way of commission.

Mrs Roffe-Barker trusted him sufficiently to transfer £10,000. One month later the money was repaid with the £5,000 in addition.

But, said Mr Zeitlin, the money was paid back from £40,000 which Mrs Roffe-Barker parted with in a further scheme which Port claimed involved no risk at all.

"She was going to open an account in her own bank and put in £40,000. It would be used to guarantee monies going to go or be lent to a third party," Mr Zeitlin said.

"She was persuaded by Mr Port to part with £40,000. She was expecting the money to be repaid very shortly."

Despite numerous requests for the money and token offers by Port of £5,000 and emails reporting it had been paid, Mrs Roffe-Barker received nothing.

Port fobbed her off with a forged cheque on one occasion and on another produced a cheque from his wife's account for £40,000 which bounced. Eventually the victim went to the police to complain and Port was arrested.

Mr Zeitlin said: "She was running into financial trouble and on May 14, 2003 her husband, Nigel, went and set fire to the premises the defendant's wife rented.

"He pleaded guilty to that and received a sentence of two years." Following his arrest, Port admitted that he owed the money but said he had intended to repay it.

He said he had invested £22,500 with a friend and the rest had gone on general living expenses. He claimed it had been a loan. He later said that the claim of giving the money to a friend was untrue.

"He said he had been suffering from paranoia at that time because he had been smoking cannabis. The drug had been found on him when he was arrested."

The court heard Port had been imprisoned before for obtaining money by deception following misrepresentations he made to a bank in 1989.

Robin Pawson, defending Port, said: "Mr Port was £2,000 overdrawn when he received £10,000 from Mrs Roffe-Barker. The money was not spent on high living. That money was frittered away on subscriptions, bill payments and hotels."

Mr Pawson continued: "Mr Port must have known on any view he was going to be caught. He had no means of repaying that money." Judge Derek Inman, sentencing him to two years in jail, said it was an unpleasant offence against a person the defendant had befriended.

"The tragic side effect was that her husband got so frustrated that he went round and set fire to your house. As a result he spent two years in prison," he said.