A HOLIDAYMAKER went on a luxury trip to Thailand — then told his bank it never happened to get a refund, a court heard.

But investigators later noticed Jordan Meakin, of Rectory Lane, Prestwich, had drawn money out of his account — from Thailand.

Thinking he had got away with the con, the 31-year-old did it again, this time booking a trip to Gran Canaria.

At Bolton Crown Court on Monday, Judge Timothy Clayson gave Meakin an eight-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months.

He said it was only a fortunate sequence of events that stopped Meakin from going to prison immediately after he defrauded the bank out of £3,998 and tried to gain an additional £1,146.

"You have been very lucky. I hope this will motivate you to stay out of trouble," said Judge Clayson.

Meakin came to the attention of police in early 2014 when he dishonestly received an iPhone 5S worth £400 and then tried to sell it to an unsuspecting buyer on trade website Gumtree for £340.

He was questioned by police and released on bail and committed the three fraud offences while on bail.

In September 2014, Meakin contacted Halifax to claim that someone had used his current account to spend £971.16 on a holiday to Thailand.

It turned out the trip had been booked through lowcostholidays.com and Halifax put the cash back into Meakin's account.

However, it was Meakin's own blunder that led to the bank’s investigation team becoming suspicious.

They studied his account activity around the time of when the holiday would have happened and found cash withdrawals from ATMs in Thailand.

In early October, he again claimed scammers had used his Halifax account to book a holiday to Gran Canaria and Halifax refunded him £732.

The court heard that Meakin was on benefits in late October and asked Halifax if he could have a £573 advance in the form of an overdraft.

On October 30, Meakin went to a cash machine in Prestwich and drew out £573 — and then went to three other ATMs and drew out a total of £1,719, contrary to his agreement with the bank.

The following day, he tried withdrawing £1,146 from two other cash machines in Bury town centre, but was rejected.

Defence counsel Michael McQuillan said: "At the time of these offences, he was at a low ebb. He had lost his business and his previous partner,

"Now, he has a new business and is very happy in a new relationship. He has turned his life around.

"He has also entered an agreement with Halifax to repay the money."

Judge Clayson added: "I am glad to hear that you are getting on with your new businesses. Make sure conduct is absolutely scrupulously clean."

Meakin was also ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work, abide by the terms of a 12-month supervision order and go to three sessions of a victim awareness activity.