WHEN teenager Robert Doughty rolled into a Rayleigh mansion in a top of the range Bentley, people thought a Premier League footballer was moving in.

But what neighbours didn’t know was Doughty was nothing but a fantasist fraudster, who bought himself a lordship off the internet and convinced banks he had a healthy balance of £9.8million.

Doughty, now 18, was actually a bank clerk earning £15,000 a year, but lived the life of luxury at the seven-bedroom Colonial House in High Road, Rayleigh.

Doughty managed to facilitate the fraud by creating false bank statements.

He also showed his debit card which read Lord Robert J Doughty to convince them.

Shocked neighbour Claire Houghton, 30, said: “I had only seen him a few times. I knew he was quite young.

“I never saw any furniture going in, it looks empty. I wonder what will happen to the house?

“His car has got the licence plate “B Hero”. I used to see him when I picked my little boy up from school and used to wonder what the number plate stands for.

“It is mad. I was quite jealous, because he had got the house so young.”

On one occasion, Doughty wrote a Abbey cheque for £3million and told Lloyds TSB he wanted to pay it in.

The fraudster claimed he had been left £9million inheritance, of which a further £21million would follow when he turned 18.

Among his purchases was a £108,000 Mercedes car, while he also made out more than £500,000 of cheques to Harrods, including to reserve a £300,000 piano from the famous London store.

Doughty, of Thamesmead, South London, had even managed to convince his girlfriend he was a Lord.

Other gobsmacked residents in High Road, who didn’t want to be named, said: “He was no problem, very quiet.

“I saw him out there cleaning his car I thought he was a chauffer or something. Who has a Bentley and washes it themself?

“We were curious as to whose car it was and tried to guess the number plate B Hero. We thought it might have been a footballer.”

Doughty was given 100 hours of unpaid community work at Maidstone Crown Court after admitting fraud on the basis he was exposing the bank to the risk of loss.

Recorder Edward Murray said the offence reflected “immaturity, rather than criminal intent”.