A fraudster has been jailed for nine months after he conned people out of more than £8,000 after posting bogus adverts on the internet.

Gerald Meechan, 44, pocketed £8,020 after pretending to 11 customers that he could do jobs for them. He carried out the fraud to pay off his large gambling debts.

He posed as a mechanic, a joiner, a car salesman, a site manager, a gas engineer and a conservatory specialist and met his victims by using websites such as Gumtree and ratedpeople.com.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard that he carried out his frauds between January 2011 and July 2013, at addresses across Scotland.

Frank Clarke, prosecuting, told Sheriff Robert Fife last week that Meechan's offences were "bogus workman-type" crimes.

In January 2011 he told father and son William and Steven McLaughlin that he was a gas engineer called Gary Dunnery and took £1,250 off them to supply and fit a boiler.

Meechan was not a registered gas engineer at the time and was not qualified to fit the boiler in their home.

In May 2013 Robert Simonds and Carol Creighton contacted Meechan after seeing an advert on Gumtree for a mobile mechanic, who said he had over 25 years' experience in the business.

He told them their vehicle, which had broken down in Cambuslang, needed repairs costing £1,017.

They paid the money but the repairs were never carried out.

In July 2013 he took £1,050 from George Robertson after agreeing to fix the conservatory at his home in Baillieston but never doing the job.

In August 2013 he took £2,600 from Glasgow man David Lunan and his wife after agreeing to supply and install a replacement window and carry out other internal decoration works at their home.

Father-of-three Meechan, of Biggar, South Lanarkshire, admitted seven charges of obtaining money by fraud when he appeared in court this week.

He cried as the details of his crimes were read to the court.