Agents should look out for a convicted fraudster who conned prospective tenants out of £10,000 worth of deposits for flats he had no right to let, and who is still on the run.

James Bennett, 32, of no fixed address, was found guilty of 17 counts of fraud at Inner London Crown Court last month.

He was sentenced to six years in prison in his absence and a warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to appear in court.

Bennett (pictured below) had made a number of listings on the SpareRoom.com website, advertising rooms for rent at four separate properties in Brixton, Walworth, Elephant & Castle and Tooting in London.

In each case, he didn’t have permission to rent out the rooms and was in the process of being evicted. In all 17 cases, he took holding deposits of up to £725.

Many victims only found out they had been defrauded when they turned up on the day agreed to move in.

Bennett earlier pleaded not guilty at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court to all 17 charges.

Inner London Crown Court heard that Bennett has a long history of offending, including previous convictions for fraud offences and perverting the course of justice.

EYE contacted the Metropolitan Police who confirmed that Bennett is still at large.

He is described as a very tall (around 6ft 7ins) white man with ginger hair. He speaks with a slightly “posh” southern English accent and is known to have connections to south-east London and the Winchester, Plymouth and Bedford areas.

In a statement, SpareRoom.com, the site on which Bennett advertised, told EYE: “We take the safety and security of our users very seriously, which is why every ad on SpareRoom is checked by our dedicated moderation team.

“Thankfully it’s incredibly rare for our users to encounter any problems and, to date, over 7m people have had a safe and positive experience using SpareRoom to find a flat share.

“In this instance we were able to cooperate with police to make sure the person in question was identified and convicted.”