A conman who duped his victims by claiming his wife had gone into labour, was finally caught by a mixture of his own stupidity, bad luck and his local evening newspaper.

Prolific offender Steven Binfield, (31), has been warned by magistrates in Bristol he could be jailed after pleading guilty to three charges of obtaining property by deception and asking for 44 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

His scam had only come to light as a result of a story apppearing in the Bristol Evening Post – and his own failings as a criminal mastermind.

It meant the paper’s current affairs editor Chris Maguire was able to pass on to police a dossier of evidence against the conman that included his photo, name and address.

The story started in May when Chris overheard a conversation between his wife and her friend, who had handed over £10 to a man in the street who had said his wife had gone into labour. He said he needed a taxi to be by her hospital bedside.

“The chap was apparently very convincing and pulled out a broken key which he claimed had snapped off in his car,” said Chris.

By coincidence the reporter was speaking to the father of boy with meningitis 24 hours later when, as a throwaway line, the dad mentioned an unusual incident.

“He said he didn’t know if he had been conned by a chap claiming his wife had just had a baby,” explained Maguire.

“But the description of man responsible was identical to the one from my wife’s friend.”

Within minutes of mentioning it to his newsdesk two colleagues realised they too had been duped by the fraudster – who was dubbed the “phoney father”.

A front page story generated 80 calls from readers who suddenly realised they could have been a victim of the phoney father.

Although the trickster gave out receipts with bogus addresses he was finally undone by his own stupidity.

Chris said: “He wrote a bogus receipt out to one victim without realising he was writing on the back of a genuine letter from the DVLA – complete with his name and address. He was also photographed by a man he approached so the evidence against him was pretty damning.”

When former RAF man Binfield appeared at Bristol Magistrates Court this week the prosecutor said the Chris said afterwards: “It’s always nice when the press and the police can work together. But if nothing else the story highlights the importance of earwigging your wife’s conversations!”

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail [email protected]