Andrew Smith decked out the three-bedroom house in Cambridge with rented showroom furniture and faked an estate agent to list it online for sale just days after moving in.

Mr Smith was only caught out when his prospective buyer conducted a drain survey before moving in and the neighbours warned them that they thought the house was a rental, ITV News reports.

Two potential buyers contacted the fake agents and a sale price was agreed with one of them.

He was sentenced at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Friday last week.