Fraudster posed as jockeys in bank scam
ASERIAL fraudster who posed as two jockeys as part of a £25,000 bank scam has been jailed.
Joseph Mason withdrew cash from the accounts of Joseph Fanning and National Hunt jockey Richard Johnson to feed a gambling addiction.
On one occasion the defendant had also phoned Mr Johnson and told him that he was going to take money from his account – and that he was insured.
Mason, 40, of Brantley Avenue, Wolverhampton, who had previously admitted three charges of fraud, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court to three years in jail.
In 2014 he had gone to a branch of Barclays in Shrewsbury claiming to be Mr Fanning and that he had lost his bank card.
He was able to provide sufficient information to the bank to convince staff that he was the jockey and in a series of transactions withdrew a total of £9,740.
He then went to branches in Erdington, Sutton Coldfield and Mansfield, this time posing as Mr Johnson and was able to get access to his account, removing over £10,000.
“The two victims are both jockeys and are known within the horse racing world,” said Richard Davenport, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court. He said Mason used the same scam to take £5,550 from another victim’s account in 2016.
Mason had also unsuccessfully tried to obtain a further £2,250.
Mr Davenport said Mason had been captured on CCTV and that his fingerprint was also found on a withdrawal slip. He had 17 convictions for 100 offences including 63 for fraud and had previously served time in jail. In passing sentence Judge Phillip Parker QC said: “These offences were sustained and they were sophisticated and in one respect they were disturbing. This was not just the presentation of a stolen bank card or cheque book. “They could be termed as identity fraud or theft.”
He said it was unclear how Mason had managed to obtain the details of his victims and that particular stress had been caused to Mr Johnson’s wife
Gurdeep Garcha, defending, said Mason had been in the grip of a gambling addiction but was determined to change his life and had not committed any offences for the last two and a half years.