‘Charming conman’ said he was sick to fund ‘fantasy life’

A “CHARMING conman” with a history of defrauding acquaintances of thousands of euro has been jailed for a further 14 months after he wheedled money out of women he was dating by pretending to be sick.

David Marsh (31) told a woman he met on a dating website he was anaemic and needed money for medication and flights to the US to see a specialist.

He conned another woman he had just started dating out of €300 for a holiday that never materialised.

He was described in court as a “classic Walter Mitty character” with an “active fantasy life”.

Marsh, with an address in Glenvara Park, Knocklyon, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to six counts of deception at various locations and one count of theft at the Eir store in Rathfarnham, Dublin, between March and June 2016.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of possessing heroin for sale or supply at Mountjoy Prison on September 18, 2016.

The court heard he was pressured into holding the drugs briefly while in jail for other fraud offences.

In July 2016, Marsh was jailed for two years for fraud offences which included conning a Limerick couple out of €76,000 by telling them he could get them a cheap house. He later admitted to squandering the cash on an Audi car, a rugby holiday and a trip to New York.

Marsh was also jailed for conning his colleagues and tag-rugby teammates out of nearly €8,000 by telling them he could get them tickets to a Conor McGregor UFC fight.

He was due to be released in May this year. Sentencing him to a further 14 months yesterday, Judge Martin Nolan said it was difficult to understand why Marsh carried out such crimes.

“He’s a charming conman,” the judge said. “He gets money from people by ingratiating himself into their confidence and then gets money from them.”

Defence barrister Leo Mulrooney BL said his client had a happy and well-adjusted childhood in south Dublin.

He said prison was a “culture shock” to Marsh and he was “preyed upon” by other prisoners and put under pressure to hold the drugs.