A paralegal from Battersea has been jailed for three years after he was found guilty of scamming people out of thousands of pounds.

Karl Lindon, 35, from Louvaine Road, was found guilty of five counts of thefts after a lengthy trial at Guildford Crown Court, which concluded on May 9.

Lindon was a paralegal who assisted people in civil cases, and he owned a company called Disability Claims Management, DCM, which assists disabled and vulnerable people.

In April 2013, he assisted three people who had won awards for unfair dismissal in civil court.

All of them used Lindon to help them claim their awards via bailiffs.

By September 2013, Lindon had acquired more than £40,000 in his bank account and transferred this into his own personal account.

Despite confrontation from the victims, he denied he ever had their money.

By December 2013, his victims reported him to Surrey Police.

Two others who fell victim to his scam won payouts of £12,000 and £2,500.

However, like previous victims, Lindon never paid them their money.

DC Sheena Service said: "I welcome the sentence Lindon has received. This was a terrible crime where the offender took advantage of a number of vulnerable people and manipulated their trust to con them out of huge sums of money – which clearly had a devastating impact on their lives."