Jailed, teenager who posed as cop to drive away cars
A ‘PERSUASIVE young conman’ has been locked up after pretending to be a police officer – again.
Mason Crozier, 19, avoided jail last year after dressing up as an cop and issuing people with bogus on-the-spot fines.
Months later, he was at it again. He turned his hand to conning people into letting him drive cars away without actually paying.
Crozier, from Wythenshawe, produced a fake warrant card before taking three cars from his victims in September, Manchester Crown Court heard.
He claimed to be interested in buying a Ford Focus from a retired man from Warrington, who had listed the car for sale online for £4,000.
After meeting the man, Crozier showed him a fake bank transfer which claimed to show the payment had been made.
Crozier showed the man a bogus warrant card and purported to be a police officer.
He left with the car, but the man never received the £4,000.
The victim was then contacted by a garage in Liverpool and told the car had been part-exchanged for a BMW.
He later received £2,000 from the garage for the car.
Days later, Crozier took the BMW to a garage in Sheffield and offered it for sale.
Producing a fake ID card and telling them he was a police officer, a salesman said he would buy the car himself.
He transferred £3,610 to Crozier, which included money for a taxi back to Manchester.
Crozier then went to a garage in Dewsbury, where he introduced himself as a police officer and asked to test drive an Audi A5. He left with the Audi after showing them a fake bank statement, claiming to have paid the £5,000 fee.
Crozier was spotted in October in Manchester in the Audi and was caught with the help of a police dog.
He was previously sentenced to twoyear community order, to include 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 30 hours of unpaid work.
Judge Anthony Cross QC described Crozier’s engagement with that order as ‘pathetic’.
That sentence came after Crozier told a taxi driver he had committed a traffic offence and demanded an onthe-spot fine of £45.
He also demanded a £30 fine from a 16-year-old boy who had a ‘cannabis grinder’ and he told a woman who relieved herself in bushes after a Spice Girls concert she needed to pay £30.
Police found a fake police uniform, a warrant card, two pairs of handcuffs and blue latex gloves in his bedroom.
Defending, Thomas McKail described Crozier as a ‘very capable and intelligent young man’.
Judge Cross said: “He is a persuasive young conman, who unless he is taught a lesson now, is going to get older and develop ever increasingly sophisticated methods of committing fraud.
“He managed to fool the probation service and he managed to fool me, which takes some doing.
“I have come across people like him in the past. He thinks he is too clever.
“He was given a choice. He should have put his intelligence to getting a life for himself out of crime. He chose not to.”
Crozier, of Gladeside Road, Wythenshawe, was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
He pleaded guilty to impersonating a police officer; three counts of fraud by false representation; possessing an article for the use of fraud; and driving without a licence or insurance.