A convicted conman who fiddled £40,000 from Britain's Energy Coast was once jailed for a £2.8 million fraud designed to fund his boyhood dream of becoming a racing driver.

James Cox was hired as the £65,000-a-year finance director at the West Cumbria-based regeneration agency last year.

Over five months, he stole £40,000 from the organisation and bought a series of luxury cars for himself.

It has now been discovered that Cox, who is of no fixed address but was last found to be living in a Premier Inn in Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset, falsified his CV and gave the organisation bogus email addresses for references which he then answered.

In court in Carlisle yesterday, Cox admitted two counts of fraud and four counts of transferring criminal property.

In court it emerged that the 51-year-old had two similar previous convictions for which he served a total of 10 years in jail. 

These include one committed in the Reading area in 2000 where he obtained nearly £3m so he could compete in Formula 1 GTR motor racing.

Operating under the alias of James Munroe, Cox even hired model Caprice and pop star Paul Young to promote the team and entered the racing series as a "gentleman driver".

The court heard that when Cox was employed with BEC he was in negotiations with a local firm about giving them a £100,000 loan from the organisation.

Part of the deal meant the client would also have access to an extra £40,000 should it be needed.

Prosecutor Pamela Fee told the court that when accounts were checked BEC noticed that £140,000 had been taken out when it should have only been £100,000.

On closer inspection the signature used for the £40,000 transfer bore no resemblance to the one on file for the legitimate client and police discovered it had been forged by Cox.

"It was found that £40,490 had been transferred to a Jaguar company and the paperwork was with Mr Cox," said Mrs Fee.

He then part exchanged the Jaguar XK for a BMW and then for two separate Mercedes cars between May and August of last year.

He was asked by BEC to leave his position on August last year, the court heard.

In a statement from BEC, a spokeswoman said: "We thank our police force for its proactive approach in this case. With this being an ongoing criminal case we will be unable to comment further at this time."

When asking magistrates to keep Cox in custody until his next court appearance, Mrs Fee added: "He is clearly a dishonest person, plus he's a flight risk and has no local ties."

He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court on May 20.