WEDDING SCAMMER JAILED FOR 2 YEARS
Check Emily out ‘Despicable’ thief pocketed £130k of couples’ cash
WE’VE all heard of checking before you cross the road – but this is taking things to a whole new level.
Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski was dressed to impress as she grabbed a drink in New York’s SoHo. A WEDDING planner who conned £130,000 from 39 couples was yesterday jailed for 30 months.
Craig Williamson blew the cash on gambling and a trip to Ibiza as he left wedding parties in limbo just days before ceremonies.
A sheriff told the 42-year-old he’d committed a “despicable” crime.
The couples had paid for weddings at Guthrie Castle in Angus, where Williamson worked. But the conman simply pocketed the money. Dundee Sheriff Court heard how the castle’s owner – US businessman Dan Pena – refunded some of his victims and has since stopped hosting weddings, leading to the loss of jobs.
Gambling addict Williamson admitted fraud between July 16, 2015, and April last year.
He went on the run with the stolen cash after telling colleagues he was going to visit his sick father in Glasgow.
A director of the company and the wife of the castle owner accessed Williamson’s emails and found a booking for Alice Cannon’s wedding.
She handed over nearly £19,000 to Williamson but found out a week before that the castle, near Forfar, had no record of the booking. The wedding went ahead after Dr Pena paid for it.
Prosecutor Eilidh Robertson told the court: “He had given the brides and grooms-to-be his own bank account details and the sums were transferred by them directly into his account.
“In total, 39 bridal parties had paid a total of around £130,000 to the accused. Some of these weddings had gone ahead as planned, with the accused keeping the funds.”
Williamson handed himself in to police in Dundee on May 8.
Billy Rennie, defending, said Williamson had developed a gambling addiction which led to the crime.
He said: “Mr Williamson realises it will be a different world facing him on his release from prison. He has shown a certain lack of empathy because he is resigned to his fate.
“He has been very realistic about the consequences of his actions.”
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael told Williamson: “It was despicable to take money in good faith from people who made wedding bookings.”
He initially sentenced Williamson to 45 months but reduced it to 30 because of his early guilty plea. Security is being reviewed at Prince George’s London school, Thomas’s Battersea, after a woman, 40, was held on suspicion of attempted burglary there on Tuesday. until 8pm on Thursdays
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