TEENAGE eBay conman Phillip Shortman used the "kudos" of his alleged family ties to a Gwent rugby legend to dupe a genuine Welsh fan out of £7,000.
Shortman sold the supporter desperate to see this year's Grand Slam showdown with Ireland a bogus debenture ticket after claiming he was Graham Price's nephew.
The 18-year-old was sentenced to youth custody earlier this year after previously using eBay to live the high life in Manhattan.
Staying in luxury New York hotels and hiring helicopters for tours of the city, he funded his jet-set lifestyle by duping users of the Internet auction site into buying non-existent goods.
But we exclusively revealed in our later editions yesterday how he struck again in March while he was on bail awaiting sentence for those offences - by using the fervour surrounding the Welsh rugby team's biggest match in almost 30 years to con genuine fans.
One of Shortman's latest victims, Nick Price, 42, a Welshman living in Cheshire, told the Argus how the conman convinced him he was given the debenture by former Pontypool, Wales and British Lions star Graham Price.
Nick Price, a sales director, said: "He told me he was Graham Price's nephew and said he would help my rugby club by getting the Welsh players to sign shirts after the Grand Slam because he said he was going to meet them after the game."
Mr Price is a big fan of the man who formed part of the Pontypool Front Row immortalised by Max Boyce, and has a signed picture of the prop on his office wall.
He said: "It did give him some sort of kudos to say he was his nephew, but I don't think Shortman is a particularly intelligent conman.
"He spelled Graham's name wrong and said he was his nephew in one email and his cousin in the next."
Mr Price said he hopes Shortman will have to return to custody: "I am pretty pleased he's been convicted and I would like to see some of the money back, but the chances are he has spent it all.
"I hope he gets the sentence he deserves, which is a custodial one, and that he learns his lesson and stops playing with people's lives."
The teenager also conned two other rugby fans living in Gloucestershire and London out of £600 and £380 after promising a pair of tickets for the same game.
At Abergavenny magistrates court yesterday Shortman, formerly of Chester Close, New Inn, Pontypool, but now living in The Twinings, Cwmbran, pleaded guilty to four offences of obtaining property by deception.
He was recently released on licence after being sentenced to 12 months' youth custody in May at Cardiff crown court after admitting 21 counts of obtaining property by deception and asking for 63 other offences to be taken into consideration.
Shortman was granted bail on condition he does not use the Internet, and sentence was adjourned to Newport crown court next month.
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