‘Career con-artist’ Michael Thomas Cook, who stole thousands, facing lengthy period in jail

A “career con-artist” who duped unwitting strangers out of thousands of dollars over the course of eight years is staring down the barrel of a lengthy period behind bars.

A “CAREER con-artist” whose “sophisticated” schemes duped unwitting strangers out of thousands of dollars over the course of eight years in multiple locations across Queensland is staring down the barrel of a lengthy period behind bars.

Michael Thomas Cook pleaded guilty to more than 20 fraud charges in the Cairns Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

His offending stretched back to 2013, and covered a number of locations across the state including parts of Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and most recently in Cairns.

Police allege Cook was targeting small businesses with few staff, portraying himself as a local resident and falsely claiming he had locked his wallet in his car and needed to borrow cash to pay for a locksmith.

The Cairns Courthouse. Picture: Brendan Radke.

The court also heard Mr Cook had history in five states for fraud, and had previously been sentenced to lengthy periods of imprisonment.

“This is pretty sophisticated catfishing, a fraudster, who has been committing offences for many years now,” Magistrate Cathy McLennan said.

“Yes, he’s a con-artist,” Police prosecutor Sergeant Trevor Woodman said.

“A career con-artist. I mean, I don’t think I can adequately punish him here,” Ms McLennan mused.

“He’s got a huge history, these are sophisticated frauds. I mean he has to have been a pretty cool customer to have convinced a worker at Subway or the Gordonvale IGA out of hundreds of dollars in cash. He got somebody’s key card. This is sophisticated fraud.”

Cash was obtained by Mr Cook by a number of individuals.

Ms McLennan also pointed to a letter submitted by Mr Cook’s defence lawyer Daniel Rigden, which made reference to Mr Cook wanting to connect with the Mates 4 Mates ex-army veteran support group in Townsville.

“See, that’s another difficulty you’ve got is on his criminal history there’s an offence of impersonating a returned soldier, so I don’t think this really helps,” Ms McLennan said.

Mr Rigden observed that didn’t necessarily mean his client had never been in the armed forces, though he admitted he had not yet independently confirmed that fact.

Ms McLennan committed Mr Cook to be sentenced in the District Court and remanded him in custody.

Originally published as ‘Career con-artist’ Michael Thomas Cook, who stole thousands, facing lengthy period in jail