A BUSINESSMAN jailed for nine years for fraud continued to break the law when released on prison licence, York Crown Court heard.

Jonathan Guy Brudenell lived a high-spending lifestyle in Nawton near Helmsley before he was exposed as a conman and sent to jail for a series of high value frauds in 2013 and 2014.

Judge Simon Hickey told the court the 51-year-old will remain on prison licence until June this year.

He was sentencing Brudenell for two offences of deceiving a motor insurance company and one of withholding information from the same insurance company.

All three offences were committed after Brudenell had been released partway through the sentences imposed at Teesside Crown Court.

Michael Cahill, prosecuting at York Crown Court, said two of the latest offences were committed when Brudenell was making a claim for car repairs in 2019 and 2020 following no-fault collisions.

On each occasion, he was asked if he had any previous convictions.

He failed to tell insurance company Esure about the fraud offences and speeding offences committed after he was released on licence.

And he failed to tell the company about penalty points on his licence when he first applied for the insurance.

He had been caught going too fast in 30 mph areas in 2016, 2018, and 2019, said Mr Cahill.

In 2013, Brudenell was jailed for five years and four months after he admitted 11 charges of fraud and one of perjury.

Teesside Crown Court heard then how he had conned wealthy acquaintances out of a total of £1.24 million.

In 2014 he was back before Teesside Crown Court when he pleaded guilty to eight more charges of fraud, including defrauding the trustee overseeing his bankruptcy, one charge of forgery, one of fraudulent trading and one of breaching bankruptcy restrictions.

He was jailed for three years and eight months, to be served after the sentence passed in 2013, making a total of nine years.

Brudenell, now of Sandsend, Whitby, pleaded guilty at York Crown Court to all three insurance offences after the judge said he would not be jailed for them. He was fined £500 and ordered to pay a £50 statutory surcharge. ]

Mr Cahill told the court the car repair claims were genuine and were paid by the insurance of the other motorists involved.

For Brudenell, Iain Simkin said he had an income of £500 a week and worked alongside his current partner, who was in court supporting him.

The frauds for which he had been jailed were of a different nature, said the defence barrister.

Most prison sentences are divided into a period spent behind bars and a period spent on prison licence when offenders can be recalled to prison if their behaviour justifies it.