Whole class of evil crooks who callously prey on pensioners
THERE’S an entire class of criminals who deliberately target the elderly in our communities.
Typical are “home improvement” crooks who overcharge for shoddy or unnecessary repairs. In some particularly sinister cases, the criminals have spotted elderly people shopping and followed them home.
Last year, driveway conmen Robert Morrison and Paul Towers were jailed for four years and three months each.
West Yorkshire Trading Standards said theirs was “the worst case this service has come across of aggressive and unfair trading practices against the elderly”.
Their victims included a 94-year-old man whose sight was so bad he could not read his contract and an 84-year-old woman with dementia.
Distraction burglaries have been around for years and usually involve two crooks. One will claim to be from a utility such as a water company investigating a leak and while the homeowner is showing him the stopcock, an accomplice sneaks upstairs to steal jewellery.
Other scams aimed at the elderly start with a phone call – victims are easy to find if they are in the phone book with a first name distinctive of the older generation.
Sometimes bogus police officers tell their victim their bank account is under investigation for fraud and they must hand over savings to a supposed police courier. Anyone who does not comply is threatened with arrest. After one gang was jailed for the scam in 2016, Commander Dean Haydon of the Met Police said: “They callously and systematically defrauded elderly people.”
A similar tactic is used by crooks impersonating HM Revenue & Customs and claiming the victim will be sued unless they immediately pay a fictional tax bill with iTunes vouchers. The scam relies on the elderly not knowing that HMRC never accepts the vouchers.
Dodgy companies selling mobility aids included Peterborough outfit Life Comfort Products.
It told sales reps to ignore “No cold-calling zones”, target houses with wheelchair ramps and handrails, and bamboozle residents with sales pitches that lasted for hours. The directors of the now defunct company are awaiting sentencing after admitting trading offences.
Campaigners are now demanding that crimes against the elderly should be classed as hate crimes, like those that target people because of their race or sexuality.
Gary FitzGerald, CEO of Action on Elder Abuse said: “Making elder abuse an aggravated offence is important not just because it would result in tougher sentences being imposed as a matter of course. It would also act as a powerful deterrent to the callous crooks who currently see vulnerable older people as easy prey.”
Making elder abuse an aggravated offence would mean tougher sentences
GARY FITZGERALD CEO OF ACTION ON ELDER ABUSE