Jonathan Mark Byrne targeted homes in Weymouth and Dorchester and pocketed cash and bank cards while the owners’ backs were turned, a court heard.

The fraudster put on an American accent as part of the ruse, prosecutor Clifford Grier said.

Mr Grier said: “The defendant is a confidence trickster who poses as an American looking to purchase property and arranges viewings through estate agents.

“He arranges to return to the property without the estate agent being present and measures up the rooms, and when left alone takes the opportunity to steal items like cash and credit cards.”

On July 6, he posed as an American named John Plowser to steal a Debenhams credit card and a cash card belonging to the owner of a house in Maumbury Square, Dorchester, the court heard.

He then bought £20 of mobile phone credit using the cash card and also used it for a taxi fare to Bridport.

The next day he used the Debenhams card in the Weymouth branch of the store on three separate occasions, Mr Grier said.

Some £50 was taken from Ann Moran, owner of a home in Hornbeam Close, Weymouth, at a viewing on July 7.

Byrne’s web of deception was unravelled when he viewed a home in St Anne’s Road, Weymouth, on July 14, and the police arrived and arrested him when he was upstairs.

Dorchester Crown Court also heard that he stayed two nights at the Wessex Royale Hotel in Dorchester from March 13 to 15 and left without paying.

He had previously posed as an American to steal £90 from a home in Richmond on March 24 and pocketed £143 after taking a debit card from a home he viewed in Twickenham on May 24, the court was told.

In police interview Byrne – who had five previous convictions from 18 offences – said he had stolen from hostels in London and from backpackers in hostels around the world and took the passport of a man named John Plowser in Paris, whose identity he assumed.

Tim Shorter said in mitigation that his client turned to crime after coming out of the Army because he was unemployed.

“He was able to live a lifestyle that he wouldn't normally live. There was some frisson of excitement about it as a whole,” he said.

Byrne pleaded guilty to four charges of burglary, one count of fraud, a charge of theft and a making off without payment charge. Eight other offences were taken into consideration.

Judge Roger Jarvis said: “It’s plain to me that these offences were pre-planned, show relative sophistication and show that you are wholly untrustworthy.

“Real distress is caused to householders who are victims of these offences we see today.”

Byrne was handed down a 28-month prison sentence for all the offences, to run concurrently.