A con man who promised to paint victims’ roofs before disappearing with their cash has been jailed.Anthony Dyer, 46, pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to three counts of obtaining cash through deception in incidents earlier this year.Crown counsel Maria Sofianos told the court that on April 3, Dyer approached Junius Durrant at his residence on Atlantic View Road, in Southampton, and asked if he wanted any work done on his roof.Mr Durrant agreed to hire Dyer to paint his roof and gave the Quarry Hill Road resident $400 to buy materials.The next day, Dyer returned to the home and told Mr Durrant that he needed more money to purchase equipment. Mr Durrant gave Dyer another $100, but Dyer never returned to the property and no work was ever done.On March 13, Dyer went to the Warwick home of Isabella Pearson and asked about painting her roof. They agreed that Dyer would paint the roof for $700, and he asked her for $450 for materials.She initially gave Dyer a cheque, but he later returned and asked for the money in cash.On June 2 Dyer struck again, approaching Kendall Harvey, on Lighthouse Road, in Southampton, about fixing a crack in his roof. Mr Harvey paid Dyer $500 for materials, but Dyer did not return.Appearing in custody in Magistrates’ Court, Dyer pleaded guilty to all three counts.While Dyer apologised for his actions and promised the court he would repay the dishonestly obtained money, Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner noted that Dyer has an extensive list of criminal convictions, including one for a nearly identical offence last year.“I sentenced him to prison for ten days for that offence,” Mr Warner said.“Not only has he got previous convictions, he has got convictions for doing the exact same thing and he would not stop his behaviour.”While prosecutors suggested that a drug assessment report could be performed prior to sentencing, Dyer said he didn’t have a drug problem but a “living problem”.“I’m not a bad person,” Dyer told the court. “I apologise for what I have done and I will change my ways. I’m sorry. I will change.”Mr Warner sentenced Dyer to six months imprisonment for each offence to be served concurrently, to be followed by two years of probation.The conditions of his probation include that Dyer repay all three victims and agree to take part in all recommended rehabilitation programmes.