A FINANCIAL adviser who conned clients out of large sums of cash has been in court again to face fresh allegations of fraud.

Kevin Walsh, aged 60, of Abbotswood Close in Redditch, was on licence having served a four-year prison sentence for similar offences.

Prosecutor Kevin Grego said that between 1999 and 2008 Walsh persuaded clients, many of them friends, to let him invest money on their behalf.

A police investigation revealed that a six-figure amount had been handed over to Walsh but he had repaid a large sum.

Another investor, 63-year-old Philip Cook, had not been involved in the initial investigation but made a complaint to the police when he read a report of the court case on Google.

The amount involved in his case was £12,000 and Walsh pleaded guilty at Worcester Crown Court to another fraud charge of dishonesty by making false representation.

Martine Taube, defending, said Walsh had merged well into the community when he was released from prison.

He was working as a courier and he and his wife were trying to pay off the mortgage on their home.

The probation service said there was a low risk of re-offending.

Recorder Davinder Lachhar imposed a nine-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered Walsh to carry out 200 hours unpaid work. She fixed a date for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing later this year.