A TEENAGER who carried out a massive fraud to fund his "fantasy" globetrotting lifestyle has been locked up for 16 months.
Reece Scobie conned travel agents out of more than £70,000 as he booked flights around the world and rooms in top hotels.
Scobie, 19, worked for Thomson Travel for two months but continued to use the company's passwords to book flights and hotels after leaving. He was described as a technology expert who was a borderline genius and had manipulated his expertise to carry out the fraud.
He was also compared by his own solicitor, Jim Laverty, to Frank Abagnale Jnr, whose story was turned into Hollywood film Catch Me If You Can.
Mr Laverty told Perth Sheriff Court that his client suffered from Asperger's Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
The court heard Scobie's con started within weeks of him being taken on as a trainee travel agent by Thomson's in the St John's Shopping Centre in Perth.
At one point - even though he had been sacked by Thomson's - he managed to con another company out of almost £60,000 in the space of 11 days.
Among the hotels where he booked rooms and suites were the Jumeirah Essex in New York, where Angelina Jolie is rumoured to own a penthouse, and the Shangri-La in Vancouver where Keanu Reeves has stayed.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: "I don't consider this an easy case to sentence because I am fully aware of the condition from which you suffer. However, I do consider it appropriate to deprive you of your liberty."
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