Dilip Kuner
HE blagged his way through a £1.3million banking scam, duped household names like Irish journalist and presenter Stephen Nolan and Eamonn Holmes – and now Jay ‘King Con’ Cartmill is terrified of swapping a Northern Irish cell for a Spanish slammer.
The brazen Belfast fraudster, who racked up an eye-watering 159 convictions, is said to be sweating over possible charges in Spain – where he continued his fraudulent work while supposedly enjoying a sun-soaked holiday.
Cartmill, 43, was granted bail in early 2024 to take a one-week break in the Canaries. But instead of topping up his tan and behaving, he stuck to what he knows best – robbing people blind.
READ MORE:
- Brad Pitt condemns fraudsters in Spain who posed as him to con two women out of €325,000
- Two Spanish company directors in court over one of Gibraltar’s largest corporate tax fraud cases
- Crypto-fraudsters scam €19m using AI-generated celebrity endorsements in Spain’s Costa Blanca
Sources say he overstayed by two and a half months in Tenerife, abusing hotel wi-fi networks to pull off scams involving millions of pounds.
“He’s panicking,” a well-placed insider told Sunday Life. “Jay can handle Maghaberry jail in Northern Ireland – he’s a regular. But a stint in a Spanish nick? That’s a different ball game. He’s seriously rattled.”
Police believe Cartmill posed as a bank employee on social media, targeting customers who’d complained online. Once he’d tricked them into giving up account info, he had cash whisked away by ‘money mules’ -all while sipping cervezas in the sun.
He was already on bail for a £1.3m scam – for which he was jailed for two years plus another two on licence, last week – but now Cartmill’s rushing to be sentenced for 63 fresh charges before Christmas, hoping any new time runs concurrently with his existing stretch.
“He’s still scheming from his cell,” the source added. “It’s classic Jay – always trying to play the system.”
A solicitor told Belfast Magistrates Court that Cartmill had made ‘full admissions’ to the recent wave of cons, which took place between 2023 and 2024.
And while he’s tried to polish up his act – even working with a fraud prevention charity and penning a guide for banks titled How Best to Safeguard Against Fraud – Judge Crawford wasn’t buying it.
“You have a history of making such assertions, only to offend again,” the judge said.
This isn’t the first time Cartmill’s crocodile tears have made headlines – in 2015, he appeared on the Nolan Show, shaking the host’s hand and apologising for stealing almost £30,000 from him.
