A serial fraudster who was not in the dock to hear his sentence complained to the press watchdog after disputing a regional daily’s report of the court hearing.

Despite not being present in court after refusing to leave his cell, Raymond McDonald claimed the Teesside Gazette’s coverage of his sentencing contained several inaccuracies.

Two articles by the Gazette reported that “disgraced ex-serviceman” McDonald had been convicted of five counts of fraud by false representation, and reported on the evidence heard at the sentencing hearing.

The court heard McDonald had refused to leave his cell for sentencing, but he claimed the Gazette’s reporting of this was inaccurate because his failure to appear was due to an administrative error.

He also said it was inaccurate to describe him as “disgraced”, and claimed that he did not sell the wedding dress of a victim’s daughter or show £45,000 to a victim.

McDonald added he was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years imprisonment, not ten years, and disputed the locations where the newspaper said his victims had lived.

The Gazette responded that the reported information was taken from the reporter’s notes taken at the hearing – which showed that the court heard McDonald had refused to leave his cell, sold the wedding dress of a victim’s daughter, showed a victim £45,000, that he initially denied the offence and that he had been dismissed from the army.

Information regarding the complainant’s sentence and the areas in which his victims lived was taken from an official Facebook post made by the Northumbria Police under the reasonable belief that it was accurate, but accepted the length of the sentence was reported inaccurately in one of the two articles.

The complaint was not upheld, and the full adjudication can be read here.