A former teenage con artist who swindled $2.8m through stolen credit cards has revealed how police could have caught him within a year if they hadn't believed his fabricated sob story.  

Elliot Castro, 42, who is the subject of the new BBC docu-series Confessions of a Teenage Fraudster, attended eight different schools in Aberdeen and Glasgow before leaving at 16 without any qualifications. 

After this, the ex-criminal - who now works as a fraud prevention expert - got a job in a call centre by telling his employers he was 18.

As part of this role, Elliot had to deal with customers' credit card information - and came up with a scheme to trick them into giving them their personal security question answers too.

He explained: 'I imagined these customers living a great life and I could see an opportunity to live it too.'

After getting their card number and expiration date as standard, Elliot would put the customer on hold, tell them there was a problem with the card and that the bank needed additional information.

Elliot would then list off common security questions until the teenager felt confident he could then impersonate the account holder when he called their bank later.

He added: 'The customers were happy to answer the questions. I never really got any resistance at all.'

Eventually, Elliot had enough people's credit card information to fill up an entire notebook.

When he lost his call centre job over repeated lateness, Elliot then began the process of calling up the customers' banks, changing their addresses, requesting a new card and then changing their home address back before they could notice.

This plan also meant that he could forge a signature on the back of the card without having to try and copy one every time he used it.

In 1999, Elliot travelled to London for the first time where he went on a shopping spree along Bond Street, which is known for its high-end designer shops.

While there, the con artist bought a £300 Gucci belt, which was more than he earned in a week at the call centre, a £700 Louis Vuitton bag and spent over £1,000 in a champagne bar.

Looking back, Elliot told documentary makers: 'I think I pretended I felt comfortable [in those surroundings]. But the reality was, I knew I essentially was an imposter. I was a kid from the south side of Glasgow and I was in a champagne bar ordering £1k bottles.'

'I look back at that person and think, "God almighty - what were you doing?" Because it was just bonkers.'

Between the age of 16 and 22, Elliot claims to have swindled over $2.8m and later details going on a '£50k shopping spree that would make a WAG sick with envy'.

What's more, he claims to have got a £8,000 first-class flight to New York, where he stayed at the Plaza hotel. During this trip, he went on a $15,000 shopping spree over the course of three days. 

However, the reformed criminal revealed in the documentary that he could have been caught much earlier if the first police officers who stopped him hadn't believed his story.

While out shopping in Manchester in 1999, Elliot recalled using a stolen card to pay for an item when an acquaintance called out his name, which didn't match the one on the receipt.

He recalled: 'So I ran out the shop and straight into the arms of two cops who happened to be passing by.'

In a panic, Elliot came up with a quick sob story in the hopes that they would take pity on him - and was amazed when he was let off with a warning.

He continued: 'I poured my heart out, said I'd ran away from home and had no money and they sent me on my way.'

'I realised in that moment just how easily I could convince people of whatever I wanted. I felt untouchable.' 

Despite his lucky escape, Elliot then proceeded to rack up a £11,000 bill on a stolen American Express card while on one of his trips to London - but would always head home to Scotland whenever he maxed one out.

He added: 'I'd be on my way back home before anyone could track me down.' 

While on a train from London to Scotland, Elliot - who was only 18 - used a stolen card belonging to a doctor to pay for a ticket.

When a passenger fell ill on the train later, the teen was called upon for his medical expertise and ended up going to a hospital in Cumbria with a woman who he suspected had had a panic attack.

After being told they would be waiting at A&E for hours, Elliot says a nurse encouraged him to inspect the patient himself and the pair later returned to the train station to continue their journey.

Elliot arrived home to discover there was a warrant for his arrest and he would later be jailed for four months for credit card theft, common assault and impersonating a doctor.

He added: 'The lady [from the train] felt there had been some ulterior motive, it made me feel sick to my stomach.'

However, he admitted he saw the four month sentence as 'karma for everything else he was up to'.

Following his release, Elliot came up with a new plan of to secure stolen cards.

The conman would call the reception of luxury hotels around the country and ask to speak to a guest with a common surname until he was put through to a room.

He would then tell his victim that there was a problem with his card at the front desk and his bank was on the other line and asking for additional information.

Once he'd gotten everything he needed from the guest, Elliot would impersonate them to the bank so they would set up a credit card in their 'nephew''s name.

Elliot always gave the bank his real name though so he could travel abroad with them.

While on bail for another credit card fraud charge, Elliot flew to Toronto - where he had to impersonate the secret service to escape capture.

Reflecting on his actions, Elliot added: 'When I started doing this I never actually thought of people. I never met these people. That doesn't make it right.

'What I understood about the way credit cards worked at the time was that if the cardholder hadn't authorised the transactions - which in my case they didn't - then they wouldn't lose anything financially.'

Watch all episodes of Confessions of a Teenage Fraudster on BBC iPlayer now.