A card sharp who has been banned from every casino in the country has been jailed for using false identities to win thousands of pounds at the tables.

Abdullah Toksoz, 40, bypassed security with false documents and used a pinhead hidden under his fingernail to mark the cards, giving him a huge advantage.

Over three years Toksoz played at casinos in Liverpool, Manchester and London, using false Italian, Bulgarian and American documentation, Southwark Crown Court was told.

When the Turkish national was arrested at Heathrow in June, he had thousands of pounds in his pockets.

Toksoz, who is married with a young daughter, was jailed for 16 months after he admitted using six false identities over a three-year period between February 2005 and June 2008.

Nicholas Mather, for the prosecution, said: “His existence has been known of for at least ten years, and from the mid-1990s he has been banned from all casinos in this country.”

Toksoz, who specialised in the game brag, used false identities including an Italian driving licence in the name Rossi Lippi, a Bulgarian ID card in the name Petrov Dramchiyiski, and the Malibu licence as Hoakin Jaklid Malventes.

Mr Mather said it was impossible to determine the amount Toksoz won during his crime spree.

He added: “The records kept by the casinos are not detailed enough, but what we can see is that on one night a figure of £2,980 appears to have been the win, and on another it is £3,100. These are simple examples.”

The court heard that Toksoz was a gambling addict who had run a kebab shop in Doncaster until selling the business in 2003 to fund his habit.

Judge Anthony Pitts, passing sentence, said: “You were determined over a period of three years to use different ID documents that you had obtained, all of them false, to gain entry to casinos, knowing that you were banned as a casino cheat.

“These are very serious offences. There is a persistent period of three years of determined dishonesty.”

Toksoz, from Croydon, South London, admitted two counts of fraud, three of false representation and one of obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception.

Speaking after the sentence was passed, a spokesman for the UK Casino Security Management Association said: “He has plied his trade across the globe, and is well known to the International Association of Casino Security. He is banned everywhere.”

Toksoz faces deportation on his release from jail.

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