A ROMANCE fraudster who presented himself as a former Army helicopter pilot who served with Prince Harry has been jailed for three and a half years, after tricking two women into relationships and conning £15,000 from them.

David Griffiths told "whopping lies" to a Torfaen woman and another from Bristol who he met on dating sites, claiming he was earning £120,000 a year working for a non-existent Canary Wharf helicopter company, when in fact he worked for a fruit and vegetable firm in Newent, earning £20,000 to £30,000.

The 52-year-old, who received a suspended jail term in 2020 for cheating a charity, lied about being shot down in Afghanistan, having £500,000 in savings and owning a £900,000 house in Oxford.

He still persuaded the women to give him money towards fake 'holidays' together and other items, but spent it on himself.

Sentencing Griffiths, who admitted fraud at Cardiff Crown Court and now lives in Malvern, Judge Paul Hobson said he "simply didn't care" about his victims.

"The emotional impact” of his elaborately-detailed stories was “hard to overstate".

"In terms of impact, this isn't really about the money," he told the court.

One of his victims said he had "groomed” her “to have sex to get financial gain" and she was sure he'd done the same to others.

The other, from New Inn near Usk, said she would never have consented to a sexual relationship had she known the truth, and called it a "violation of trust" that should be criminalised.

After seeing him for a while, he told her he had changed jobs from Canary Wharf to work as a search and rescue pilot at RAF St Athan, and could only see her for two weeks out of every month owing to shift patterns

She gave him money towards a holiday in Dubai and Thailand, but the itinerary and booking reference he provided were fake.

He also led her to believe he was buying a £650,000 house in the Vale of Glamorgan – having "sold his Oxford house" and contacted a builder, architect and kitchen maker – and visited the property with him, including a party hosted by the sellers.

But when a relative of his received conveyancing documents, they raised the alarm that he was a convicted fraudster without means to purchase the property.

The 56-year-old ended the relationship when he admitted he had lied, but within a month, Griffiths was seeing another woman he met on a dating app, this time posing as a former Army Apacahe helicopter pilot who had served alongside Prince Harry.

But the 57-year-old became suspicious when he said his sister had died and his son been involved in a road accident.

He nearly always got her to pay, saying he'd lost his wallet, and took money from her towards a fake safari holiday.

And her "world came crashing down" after inquiries by her son revealed his history of fraud.

Thanking the victims for coming forward, Det Sgt Alistair Frame said: “Romance fraud isn’t just about the financial loss. It is a huge breach of trust, and leaves people questioning everything they thought they knew.

“Romance fraudsters, like David Griffiths, are manipulative, and often incredibly convincing.”