A conman built a fraud machine which he used to dupe £500,000 from bank customers.

Metropolitan Police officers discovered the bizarre device when they raided the home of Tony Muldowney-Colston, a computer genius who had a history of carrying out sophisticated frauds.

The machine, known as a Semi-automatic Social Engineering Bank Telephone Machine, allowed Muldowney-Colston to alter his voice to pretend to be someone of any age or gender.

This allowed the 53-year-old to impersonate genuine customers when he spoke to banks. The machine also played pre-recorded bank messages in a bid to trick unsuspecting victims.

The Met Police said the machine was used in a scam that conned hundreds of people out money.

During the raid officers also seized a hard drive containing details of passports and identity cards, 32 credit cards, and a spreadsheet containing names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers.

The fraud machine built by Tony Muldowney–Colston credit: Metropolitan Police

Muldowney-Colston built his device while on licence for masterminding a £1.25million cyber bank heist which targeted scores of individuals, including comedian Stephen Merchant.

He had been jailed for five and a half years in 2014 for leading a gang that planted a hi-tech computer hacking device in a bank to empty high-value accounts.

Six high-worth accounts were emptied, with the University of Portsmouth and the London Metropolitan University among the victims.

Prior to his criminal career Muldowney-Colston had been a successful professional gambler, who had astounded teachers as a teenager by passing a special O-level in fruit machine technology aged just 16.

At the height of his gambling career he raked in £23,000 a day before he was barred from every casino in Britain.

He rose to notoriety in the 1980s when became known as the "King of Acid House" for organising some of Britain’s more notorious raves, one of which was banned by then home secretary Douglas Hurd.

Then in 2003, Muldowney-Colston travelled to Hong Kong where he set up an engineering company which produced a component for a Formula One car.

But it was when he moved back to Britain to marry and start a family that police believe he became an accomplished fraudster.

Jailing Muldowney-Colston for 20 months at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Jeffrey Pegden, QC, said: “In July 2016 you then had a significant period where you complied with your licence but you then returned to fraudulent behavior.

“Over a period of months and with a very significant degree of planning you made a whole variety of items for use in fraud.”

Muldowney-Colston, of Clifton Street, Brighton, admitted nine counts of possession of an article for use in fraud and two counts of making or supplying an article for use in fraud and was jailed for 20 months.

Following the sentencing Det Insp Philip McInerney from the Met Police's Cyber Crime Unit said: “The scam carried out by Muldowney-Colston affected hundreds of people across the UK, and had the potential to affect many more.

“He is an audacious criminal who only recently was released from prison for carrying out very similar offences.

“He shows no concern for the welfare of any individual or organisation, and has made it clear he will use a range of methods to achieve significant financial gain for himself.”