Scammers fleeced elderly of $280k

A 22-year-old man has admitted using a phone scam to con at least 30 elderly women living alone out of $280,000.

Brendon Karl Dean Harris pleaded guilty to six charges of obtaining money by deception from a total of six victims at an appearance in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.

The Hei Hei man also admitted a charge of perverting the course of justice and a breach of a community work sentence.

Harris was part of a group involved in the well-organised phone scams that police said managed to scam elderly victims out of a total of $280,000 over several months from September 2015 to January 2016.

Several of the group had already pleaded guilty and been jailed, but Harris originally pleaded not guilty and the charges against him had been set for a jury trial.

Police said the group of scammers had targeted elderly women living on their own.

The ages of the victims ranged from late 60s to 97.

A male from the group – sometimes Harris – would phone the victim and say there was a prob- lem with their power or telephone account and they owed money.

He would tell them their power or phone would be cut off if the matter was not resolved.

He would then convince the victim to provide the personal identification number (PIN) for their bank account and would organise someone to collect their ‘‘faulty’’ bank card.

A woman would then arrive at the victim’s home to collect the eftpos card and confirm the PIN.

They would leave a replacement card, which would actually be a Prezzy gift card.

Usually within the next 12 hours, money would be systemati- cally withdrawn from the victim’s account.

The group raided at least 30 victims and police believed others would have had money stolen, but were too embarrassed to report their losses.

Harris called a 91-year-old woman in a retirement home and the group then took $3000 from her account, a 93-year-old at a Papanui retirement home had $3144 stolen from her account and a 73-year-old West Melton woman was conned out of $5377.

Judge Jane Farish remanded Harris on bail to September 1 when a sentencing date would be set.