A CONMAN who ran a �5m investment scam is facing 170 years in a US jail after being convicted.

Knebworth villager Robert Tringham was this week found guilty of federal fraud and tax evasion charges.

A jury took just 20 minutes to convict the 65-year-old of a string of offences including mail and wire fraud, tax evasion, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to federal investigators.

Tringham, born Rodney Duncan Tringham, promised victims their money would be put into safe accounts and used to back the purchase of bonds. But at the two-week trial, federal prosecutors showed Tringham lied to investors and transferred millions of dollars of funds to himself to finance purchases including his $1.5m home in an exclusive, private development in Diamond Bar, California.

Tringham also did not disclose to investors he had previously been convicted of deception, forgery and theft in Britain.

In 2005 and 2006 Tringham took more than $7m from investors.

Tringham, who has been behind bars since May 2009, is due to be sentenced by US district judge S. James Otero in June.

The 10 charges carry a maximum statutory sentence of 170 years in a federal prison.

*Read about Tringham’s connection to music legend Bruce Springsteen in this week’s Welwyn Hatfield Times, out now.