A LOVE rat seduced victims online then stole from them after being invited to their homes.

Connor Richardson, 23, from Foulness near Southend, swiped games consoles, bank cards and more from women he met on dating website Plenty of Fish.

He would then ignore or block all attempts made by his victims to contact him.

One woman said he had travelled from London to stay with her at her home in Chichester.

While he was staying with her, she left early in the morning for work while Richardson stayed at her home.

But later that day her bank contacted her after noticing “suspicious activity” on her account.

Richardson had taken the card and used it for a spending spree in Brighton.

She quickly cancelled all of her cards and returned home to find her PlayStation, four games consoles, several games and two pairs of Beats headphones had been taken.

These are worth a combined total of about £800.

Richardson also targeted another woman with a similar scheme at her home in Portsmouth.

He told her he lived in London and was in the area for work.

But, while staying at her house, he claimed the work had been cancelled and the victim agreed to let him stay on her sofa as she went to work. When she returned home, £70 cash had been stolen from a money tin owned by her brother, who she lived with.

A silver Accurist watch, a PlayStation 4 controller and numerous PlayStation games were also missing from his room.

Richardson also took her credit card and used it to make a series of purchases and cash withdrawals.

Police investigated and were led to an address in Crawley, on October 31.

There, they arrested Richardson and he was charged with burglary, two counts of theft and two counts of fraud by false representation. When interviewed by police, he confessed.

At Portsmouth Crown Court on November 22 he was sentenced to 96 weeks in prison.