Cowboy planner pocketed £2,000 and never submitted homeowner's documents

Harjit Singh Marwaha also duped another homeowner, presenting amateur documents without details about the extensions that would normally be found in a planning application.

The conman – who was given a suspended jail sentence for similar offences in 2013 – received more than £2,000 in total from two Wolverhampton homeowners to draw up plans and submit them to the city council. He attempted to trick one customer by presenting them with a phoney receipt – which was actually just a draft of the plans from the council's website, Wolverhampton Magistrates Court heard.

The court was told Marwaha, aged 34, agreed to put plans together for building work at homes in Orton Grove, Penn, and Windsor Road, Parkfields.

However, Marwaha's web of lies began to unravel when the occupants complained when no progress was made with their extensions.

Mr David Abel, prosecuting on behalf of Wolverhampton council, said: "Between March and July 2015, two complaints were received by Wolverhampton trading standards relating to an agreement entered into by the complainant with the defendant, who reported to be a planning agent and agreed to produce plans and submit them to Wolverhampton council with a fee."

One man handed over more than £1,000 after Marhawa promised to formulate the plans and submit them to the council. This included the £172 fee to be paid to the council foe lodging the application. Marhawa then printed a document from the council's website and presented it as a receipt.

Mr Abel said: "He stated it was a receipt and this led the man to believe the application was progressing. In fact the plans had not been submitted and were never submitted."

Another set of plans were altered without the homeowner's knowledge before being submitted. Mr Abel added: "The defendant seems to have targeted elderly people in the Asian community."

Marwaha, of Bee Lane, Fordhouses, pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation, engaging in a commercial practice which is misleading and knowingly or recklessly engaging in a commercial practice. He is due to be sentenced on June 27.

His latest court appearance comes three years after he was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay almost £8,000 for producing fake paperwork wrongly stating he had received planning permission for four bungalows.