A 19-year-old 'professional fraudster' who managed to trick people into thinking that he was a child in order to con them out of their money, appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday.

The man, Ackeem Darby, pleaded guilty for attempting to obtain money by false pretence. Darby was sentenced to three months imprisonment at hard labour, suspended for three years.

In his defence, Darby had told the court that he tricked people to provide for himself because oftentimes his mother ill-treated him as she preferred his sibling.

Darby explained that he has been providing for himself from a tender age and so he has been obtaining money by false pretence to continue to support himself.

A probation officer was also assigned to his case.

THE STAR understands that Darby of a Portsmouth, St Catherine address, was able to convince people he was a child which made them more receptive to him.

"Him look like 13 or 14 and doesn't even have facial hair," a family court source told THE STAR.

The source explained he would even cry to make his story believable.

Reports are that the man also used his mother as a scapegoat claiming she was ill and paralysed and was in need of urgent surgery. On other occasions, it is said, he told people that his mother was blind and he needed money to take care of her.

The youngster reportedly messed up when he revealed his real address to persons who expressed interest in visiting his ill mother before contributing money for her surgery.

It is said that several persons visited the mother to assist only to find out that nothing was wrong with her. THE STAR was told that those persons had pledged to provide US$3,500 (J$301,000) to assist with the surgery.

The police were said to have been made aware of the man's actions after he was arrested at a shopping centre in Half-Way Tree.

On the day, he was seen walking along King's Plaza with a letter stating that his mother is blind and he needed money so that he could go back to school.

Further investigations were made into his story and it was discovered that his mother was not ill and he had fabricated different stories and diferent letters on separate days.

He was then arrested and charged.

His case was then handed over to the Family Court where he remained until yesterday when it was transferred to the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate Court.

When he appeared in the family court, his mother presented his birth certificate and his immunisation card as proof of his age.