A CON man tricked a Redditch boss into handing over the keys to his car by claiming it was being recalled by the dealership because of a fault.

But Richard Heckstall-Smith was caught because three weeks later his victim spotted him driving the Audi A3 out of London and called police.

Heckstall-Smith, 52, of Barley Close, Henley-in-Arden, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to obtaining the car from Howard Guy by deception.

He was given a 21-month prison sentence, which was suspended for two years after the judge read of his health problems, which had included a series of strokes.

Adam Western, prosecuting, said the Audi A3, worth about £16,000, was leased by Listers of Stratford to company director Mr Guy, whose firm Design Q is based in Washford.

In February, Mr Guy had a call from the defendant claiming he was from Listers and that a problem had been discovered with the A3s so they were being recalled for it to be rectified.

Three days later, he called again saying he was from Audi customer services and arranged to collect the keys to the car from Mr Guy at Birmingham Airport, from where the company director was flying to Paris.

It was agreed the car would be taken back to the airport to coincide with his return from France.

But Mr Guy's return was delayed so he called his secretary to ask her to re-arrange the collection - and when she telephoned Listers, she was told they knew nothing about it.

Three weeks later, Mr Guy was on his way out of London on the A40 when he saw his Audi, which he recognised because of a dent in the wing, although the number had been crudely altered with some black tape.

He called police and followed the car until officers stopped it on the M25 and arrested Heckstall-Smith.

Although Mr Guy recognised him, the defendant, who had previous convictions for theft, deception and possessing heroin, claimed he had collected the car from a lady at the airport at the request of a business colleague.

Originally Heckstall-Smith had put forward a basis plea, rejected by the prosecution, that he had not set up the sting himself but had collected the car on behalf of someone else and only later decided to keep it.

And Judge Marten Coates said: "It was just another attempt by him to fool everyone he comes into contact with, including the court."

David Munro, defending, said Heckstall-Smith had previously lost a job because of a cocaine addiction and then went to work at Alvis in Coventry until it closed down.

After that, he went back to his old drug habits and became addicted to heroin, although he had now been drug free for some weeks.

Mr Munro added Heckstall-Smith has suffered a series of strokes, had extremely high blood pressure and was at risk of a further deterioration in his health.

Sentencing Heckstall-Smith, Judge Coates told him: "You are really quite a dishonest man through and through.

"The offence passes the custody threshold but I have just been deciding whether to suspend it because of your health."