A FRAUDSTER who tricked his girlfriend into believing he was an MI5 agent before stealing £13,800 claimed it was only done to impress her.

Wayne Gouveia, who had previously been convicted of tricking another ex-girlfriend, was yesterday told he was a “manipulative conman” and jailed for 18 months.

The 25-year-old convinced jewellery shop assistant Leanne McCarthy he was a secret agent sent to foil a plot to kill her.

He terrified the then 19-year-old by claiming her boss was lacing her mail with anthrax and persuaded her to let him intercept all her post — including a bank card.

But Gouveia was last night behind bars after admitting stealing £13,864 of Miss McCarthy's savings.

Sumita Mahtab-Shaikh, defending, told Oxford Crown Court Gouveia had been prescribed anti-depressants and was extremely ashamed and remorseful.

She said: “There was no malice involved.

“All I can say is he wanted to impress her, and for her to like him.

“All the money he obtained was spent on them and their relationship.

“He understands he can no longer continue the way he has been.

“He needs to change.”

The court heard Gouveia was working in The Whisky Shop, in Turl Street, Oxford, when he met Miss McCarthy towards the end of 2006.

Clare Tucker, prosecuting, said Gouveia showered Miss McC- arthy with expensive gifts and said he had so much money because he was actually an undercover agent.

She explained he then told her his boss wanted to recruit her as a spy because she had kept his secret so well.

He made her sign a fake copy of the Official Secrets Act before taking her on pretend covert operations, which included spying on houses and cars in the city.

Gouveia, of Shannon Road, Bicester, admitted three charges of fraud by false representation.

He also admitted being in breach of a suspended sentence given to him in October 2006 for obtaining property and money transfers by deception.

The court heard he had lied to another ex-girlfriend, telling her his family were dead and asking her to pay £1,800 for a holiday which he did not pay back.

Mr Recorder John Hardy said some people might assume that Miss McCarthy was naive and gullible.

But he added: “To some extent that may be true, but essentially she was vulnerable.

“She invested a great deal of emotional trust in this defendant who abused that trust.

“This is not some sort of Walter Mitty fantasist but a manipulative conman.”

Jailing Gouveia, he told him: “You pick your victims with care, you prey on the vulnerable.

“Miss McCarthy was starting out in life at 19 years old with, no doubt, hopes and aspirations.

“I make no criticism of her at all for falling for the story which you spun since you are evidently a capable and resourceful conman.

“I, for one, suspect that you got something of a thrill out of the story that you told.

“It is as much the mental cruelty which you inflicted on her as the financial deprivation which makes this so serious a case.”

After the sentencing, Miss McCarthy, of Blackbird Leys, Oxford, spoke of her hatred for Gouveia and said he had affected her trust in people.

The 21-year-old said: ”I absolutely hate him. I would never want a girl to be put in the same position I was. I would not wish that on anybody.

“He comes across as really nice. I knew him a year before I started going out with him.

“He was lying even before I started going out with him.”

Miss McCarthy said she began having doubts about what Gouveia had told her when they split up last autumn after living together for a month. She said: “It just got to a point where he was being really nasty to me.

“I just literally had no money, not a single penny to my name.

“I could not work out how or why.

“He was really believable. I trusted him and he took me in. I did feel really stupid. It has affected my trust in people.

“Everyone that met him liked him. They were all taken in by him. He likes to imagine he has this lifestyle because it makes him feel better personally. I thought I knew him but obviously — quite clearly — I did not at all.”