Mornings<\/a> programme: “That was the beginning of five years of absolute craziness from the time I was 16 up until 21, 22. <\/p>\n“The first time I ever got hold of a card it was CDs and haircuts and t-shirts at that point.<\/p>\n
“There was no hint of how mental it would get later on.”<\/p>\n
The fraudster was born in Aberdeen in 1982 and attended eight different schools before he moved to Glasgow with his family in 1998.<\/p>\n
He described himself as a dreamer and admitted lying on the application for his call centre job and said he was 18 instead of 16.<\/p>\n
Castro, who is half Chilean, said: “I had it in my head that I would just have this amazing lifestyle.”<\/p>\n
His criminal career eventually bankrolled exclusive holidays, five-star hotels, lavish parties and limousines.<\/p>\n
During one trip to London in 1999 Castro bought a Gucci belt for \u00a3300 – which he said was more than he earned in a week in the call centre.<\/p>\n
The Home Alone fan later splashed more than \u00a38,000 on a first class flight to New York, where he stayed in the Plaza Hotel, which features in the celebrated movie.<\/p>\n
His trip featured a three-day $15,000 (\u00a311,791) spending spree on the city’s exclusive Fifth Avenue. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
James Burns<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nCastro now works with financial institutions, travel companies and businesses to combat fraud<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
Castro admitted: “A general day in my life at that time was wake-up, go shopping, buy things, go drinking, go back to whatever hotel I was staying in that night, sleep, wake up the next day and repeat.<\/p>\n
“But all of this time I had to be aware that I was possibly being followed or that someone would be looking to catch me.”<\/p>\n
In 2001 he enjoyed trips to Germany, France and Spain.<\/p>\n
The following year he spent time in Ireland, where he stayed at The Clarence Hotel in Dublin and claimed he rubbed shoulders with U2 stars.<\/p>\n
Castro said: “It’s a hotel owned by Bono and the Edge and we had a conversation one night in the bar where I told them I was working for the Ministry of Defence or a hotel consultant.”<\/p>\n
The con man had several brushes with the law, dating back to 2001 when he spent four months in a young offenders’ institute in Lancaster.<\/p>\n
Months later he was arrested at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh and taken to Manchester, where he was sentenced to 18 months at HMP Hindley.<\/p>\n
During this time he got a job in the prison library and read up about the internet.<\/p>\n
This research led him to use internet cafes on his release to make anonymous flight bookings with stolen credit cards.<\/p>\n
In 2002 he was arrested in Toronto and jailed for 87 days before being deported in 2003.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Getty<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n
His international crime spree eventually came to an end in the Harvey Nichols department store in Edinburgh the following year. <\/p>\n
Castro said: “I was beginning to feel done with it, I’d started for the first time in my life to make friends.<\/p>\n
“But the downside was I couldn’t tell them who I really was.<\/p>\n
“The situation became unbearable. <\/p>\n
“So I do wonder, was there a subconscious part of me that wanted to give it up?”<\/p>\n
That day he bought \u00a32,000 of vouchers with a card that wasn’t in his name.<\/p>\n
The receptionist called the card company, who approved the transaction.<\/p>\n
But, acting on a hunch, she called them back.<\/p>\n
He said: “They got in touch with the real card holder who verified it was fraudulent and stupidly I came back to the shop less than an hour later and that’s the moment it ended.<\/p>\n
“I went to the toilet quickly and when I opened the cubicle door there was a plain clothes police officer there and that was the beginning of the end.”<\/p>\n
The following year at Isleworth Crown Court in Middlesex, Castro admitted fraud offences amounting to more than \u00a373,000 and was sentenced to two years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Getty<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n