A man who “spotted a gap in the market” conned at least 11 people by selling them cars which were not roadworthy and which were intended for scrap has been jailed for three and half years.

Faizal Baccus (36) advertised each of the vehicles on donedeal.ie claiming that they had recently passed the NCT and also that many of them were taxed. He then provided his customers with fake NCT certificates, tax discs and log books.

Many of the cars later broke down or the new owners had to invest a lot of money to get them roadworthy enough to pass a NCT.

Baccus of Geraldstown Woods, Santry Avenue, Santry, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sample charges which included three charges of dishonestly inducing a person to purchase a vehicle by deception by producing forged log books and NCT certificates, a charge of making a false NCT certificate, one charge of making a false log book, one charge of producing a false NCT certificate and one charge of having equipment to allow him to forge documents in January 2013.

He has four previous convictions for road traffic offences and had been living in Ireland for eight years before he lost his lost his job in security and started the scam. Baccus is due to be deported once he has served his time in prison.

Judge Martin Nolan said it was clear that Baccus was “a man of ability, education and energy”.

“He spotted a gap in the market, found a way to forge documents and duped people into buying these cars,” the judge said.

He described Baccus as a very good conman who had obtained the blank certificates “from the underworld” but accepted that he had co-operated with the garda investigation and expressed remorse.

Lorcan Staines BL, prosecuting confirmed that there were 11 witness statements from people who complained that they had purchased vehicles which were not roadworthy from Baccus.

Baccus claimed he had bought a USB stick containing the documents he needed to make the forgeries from a traveller.

Detective Garda James McDevitt confirmed that the blank NCT certificates were traced back to a test centre in Ballymun which had been burgled about a year previously.

Carol Doherty BL, defending, told Judge Nolan that her client decided to start this scam after he lost his job while his wife was pregnant and he thought this was a way to “make an easy buck”.

She said he was happy to accede to his deportation order and wished to return to his wife and child in Mauritius once he has served his prison sentence.

Online Editors