Hong Kong  - A smooth-talking Hong Kong conman who used bogus degrees to get 12 jobs and steal hundreds of thousands of US dollars from employers was beginning a seven-year jail term Wednesday.

Lam Chun-fai, whose antics mirrored the 2002 hit movie Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio, used a fake degree from Cambridge University and other papers to land jobs as a psychiatrist, an accountant and a marketing manager.

In fact, the 33-year-old school drop-out had no degree-level qualifications and used his positions to steal hundreds of thousands of US dollars.

He flitted from one job and one profession to another, talking his way into well-paid jobs and then embezzling money in a seven-year spree from 2001 until 2008, the Hong Kong Standard reported.

Lam was eventually caught earlier this year after his job application was spotted by an employer who recognized him from an Hong Kong Labour Department alert over his previous crimes.

At a hearing in Hong Kong's District Court Tuesday, Lam was jailed for seven years after being convicted of theft totalling almost 500,000 US dollars, fraud, and possession of fake documents and bank notes. (dpa)