MUSSELBURGH conman Walter Brown was forced to hand over £2,000 to a court on Friday after he had missed two payments he was due to a man he swindled out of cash.

Brown, 55, pretended to undertake gardening work and took cash from victim John Keating over an eight-month period.

Brown, of Whitehill Mains Farm, said he would complete the work at Mr Keating’s Edinburgh property and would repay the loan amounting to £11,000.

But the bogus gardener only carried out work to the cost of £3,600 before failing to complete the promised work.

Brown admitted the scam when he appeared at the capital’s sheriff court earlier this year and he was ordered to repay Mr Keating back at a rate of £1,000 per month.

But when the case called at court on Friday, Sheriff Kenneth McGowan was told Brown had lost his job and had failed to pay the cash back on time.

Lawyer Mary Moultrie said her client had attended court last week with £2,000 in cash and that was handed over to the sheriff clerk as payment to Mr Keating.

Ms Moultrie said Brown has started a new job as a head chef in Edinburgh and is now in a position to restart the repayments.

Sheriff McGowan accepted the excuse for the late payments and deferred sentence again to November.

Brown admitted agreeing to carry out gardening work and to obtaining a loan from John Keating totalling £19,000 at an address in Edinburgh between December 14, 2016 and October 17, 2017.