A conman who swindled £20,000 from a vulnerable woman with fictitious tales of his Hollywood lifestyle has today been jailed – and police believe there may be more victims.

Rodney Abe Roberts befriended a single mum in her 30s and told her he was a film producer with political ambitions in America and was set to inherit an £80million trust fund.

He began taking her money in June 2014, telling her his bank accounts had been frozen by the Russian Mafia and asking for £3,000.

Over the next few months Roberts, 30, conned her out of £20,000. When she got into financial difficulties and began borrowing money from friends he ignored her requests for the money to be given back and asked for more cash.

Roberts, of the Mayville Estate, Dalston, was jailed for 20 months at Wood Green Crown Court after pleading guilty to fraud by false representation last month.

The judge also ordered that Roberts pay the victim almost £20,000 in compensation to reflect the money he had defrauded from her.

Det Con Larissa Nightingale, of Hackney CID, led the investigation. She said: “Rodney Roberts is a manipulative and calculated individual who preyed on a vulnerable woman for the sole purpose of financial gain.

“He lived a lavish lifestyle funding visits to expensive hotels and restaurants while his victim was left in an increasingly strained financial situation.

“The sentence that the judge imposed reflects the seriousness of the crime and he must repay all the money that he stole from this lady.

“Given his lifestyle, I believe there may have been other victims of Roberts and I would appeal to anyone who has been a victim of him to contact the police via 101.”