A TAXI fare dodger who said he worked for investment bank JP Morgan as part of his scam has been ordered to pay the money back.

Jake Dean, 24, took cabs in Brighton, Peacehaven and London before telling drivers he did not have the money to pay them.

Dean, who did work in Canary Wharf, but not for JP Morgan, has been sacked from his sales job as a result.

The fraudster promised he would pay drivers back the following day but instead strung them along with promises of payment.

Dean was given a 12 month community order and made to pay back the fares amounting to more than £500 at Brighton Magistrates Court yesterday. The court heard on December 30 last year Dean hailed a cab from Hove to Peacehaven, before asking the driver to take him to Brighton.

Dean flashed the driver £100 in cash to reassure him, but then told the driver he did not have fare because he needed it for a hotel. He arranged to sell a games console to settle the £100 fare, but the driver never heard from him.

The court also heard Dean scammed a driver in London. He told him he worked for investment banking firm JP Morgan and his boss would pay up at Croydon station. When nobody turned up, Dean said he would come to the taxi office the next day to pay the £256, but he never returned.

In an earlier hearing Paul Edwards, prosecuting, said: “He was driven to the ATM but his cashpoint card didn’t work and he agreed to transfer the money on taxi app Hailo but the money was never paid. Dean had given details of his ‘employers’ but when the driver phoned JP Morgan they had never heard of him.”

Dean also conned a driver out of £130 when he hailed a cab from Waterloo Station to South Coast Road, Peacehaven. On February 27 he hailed a cab from Peacehaven to Brighton, and told the driver his card would not work at the ATM. But Dean never paid the £25 he promised .

Following his arrest, he said: “I never did it maliciously as I was impulsive and I was always trying to get the money together, rather than not paying the drivers when I had the funds available.”

Now a labourer he added: “I would like to put the story straight as The Argus has affected my employment. I went for a job interview with a sales company and they saw it in the paper, I did tell them about it. They were also asking about my mental health issues, as it was plastered on the internet.”