DOLGELLAU gold mines were at the heart of a fraudulent act which saw one jewellery maker £12,000 out of pocket.

Conman Barklay Cossins-Price began his latest fraud from inside prison when he persuaded jewellery-maker Nigel Blayney to invest in an ill-fated gold mining project in north Wales, a court heard.

Undeterred by being jailed for an earlier fraud offence, Cossins-Price told his new victim he was able to e-mail him only twice a week because he was out of contact while working undercover in Bolivia.

The true reason was that he was only allowed to check and send e-mails twice a week in prison.

Mr Blayney, 65, who runs a jewellery making business in Cheltenham, was won over by Cossin-Price’s “charm and persuasive manner” and invested a total of £42,000 in schemes to search for gold in two former mines near Dolgellau.

Last week at Gloucester crown court Cossins-Price, 41, of Worsley Avenue, Warrington, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to fraudulently claiming he could get a lease of the Gwynfynydd mine near the Meirionnydd town.

He admitted he made a false representation by telling Mr Blayney that £12,000 was required for him to gain the lease of the gold mine at the end of 2011.

After hearing that Cossins-Price has already repaid £3,000 to Mr Blayney and had another £4,800 available to hand over now, judge Jamie Tabor QC allowed him to walk free from court with an eight-month jail sentence suspended for two years.

He also ordered Cossins-Price to do 200 hours of unpaid work and to repay Mr Blayney the balance of £4,200 at £300 a month.

The court heard that Mr Blayney met Cossins-Price as a customer when the con-man said he wanted a ring made.

Cossins-Price told Mr Blayney he and family members had set up a firm, Midas Exploration Ltd, to re-open a Welsh gold mine.

He invited Mr Blayney to become a shareholder in the firm and he agreed, investing £25,000, said prosecutor Charlie Pattison.

Blayney believed he was in negotiations to take over the Clogau mine which had been put up for sale by owner Gethin Williams in 2010.

“One particular email from Cossins-Price stated he was in Bolivia and could only access emails twice a week,” the prosecutor stated.

“He was in fact serving a 12-month prison sentence for a £51,000 fraud in Bournemouth, having been sentenced on 11 March 2010.

“In March 2011, Mr Williams cancelled his lease to Midas Exploration and repossessed the Clogau mine because of alleged insurance, planning and illegal mining activities.

“Mr Blayney then handed over another £5,000 to Cossins-Price to challenge the cancellation but that came to nothing.”

The prosecution said that what happened next led to the charges Cossins-Price admitted.

In October 2011 Cossins-Price told Mr Blayney he had been talking to the owner of the Gwynfyndd mine, Ewan Kearney, and a lease was available for £12,000.

He said he had written a cheque for £12,000 but there was not enough money in the Midas account to meet it.

Mr Blayney handed over £12,000 to cover it, believing that all the necessary planning permissions were in place and the deal had been approved by the owners.

However the money was not used for its intended purpose and Mr Blayney was left £12,000 in debt.

Joe Maloney, for Cossins-Price, said he admitted the fraud on the basis that he led Mr Blayney to believe the prospect of being able to lease Gwynfynnd mine was real but that the £12,000 was then used for other expenses.

Cossins-Price ‘regrets his actions,’ he said.

After the hearing Mr Blayney said: “I’ve been in business for 45 years and I think I am quite astute.

“It takes a clever con man to fool me, but clearly this man is one of those.

“He has a charming and plausible manner and with his mother as the director and major shareholder of the firm I felt confident after going to meet her that it was all above board.

“But it seems to me now that he lives in a Walter Mitty fantasy world and just comes up with ingenious lies to cover every question you ask of him when you have doubts about what is going on.

“If I had known he had a previous fraud conviction or that he was emailing me from prison rather than Bolivia I would never have parted with my money.”