AN ALTON-based conman, who faked pilot's qualifications to get a job flying holiday makers to the UK, has been jailed for three years and one month, after breaking bail.

Michael Fay, 61, a US national who settled in Alton, worked fraudulently as a commercial airline pilot, flying passengers into Gatwick Airport without the proper licence and medical documentation on eight occasions.

Police were alerted when another pilot became suspicious while chatting to him on an internet forum.

He had been operating Airbus A320 aircraft for eight months on behalf of Libyan company Afriqiyah Airways at the time of his arrest on February 3, 2011, having forged his pilot's licence and medical certificates.

The former US Air Force pilot was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison at Winchester Crown Court on May 3 for fraud.

For full story, see this week's Alton Herald.