Conman is jailed over £340k plant hire fraud
A CONMAN who targeted plant hire and car tyre firms in an ‘organised and sophisticated’ £340,000 fraud is behind bars.
Father-of-three Robert Salinger, 37, used false identities and posed as existing customers to rent industrial plant hire equipment and buy tyres.
He negotiated credit agreements or arranged for payments to be made at later dates, but goods were quickly ‘moved elsewhere’ after delivery, a court heard.
The court heard that Salinger posed as an existing customer to place an order for three fork-lift trucks worth £38,000 from a company. The trucks were delivered to an industrial estate in Bury but by the time staff began to fear they had been duped and checked the address, they were ‘gone’, Manchester’s
Minshull Street Crown Court was told.
Salinger again posed as an ‘existing customer’ to con another plant hire company out of a digger breaker, a saw, commercial buckets and a trailer worth £32,500, the court heard.
The equipment was delivered to a lock-up in Failsworth, Oldham.
It was only ‘by chance’ the goods were recovered after police made a ‘routine stop’ on the M62 motorway, the court was told on Friday.
Some of the frauds failed, but others succeeded, it was said.
Wayne Goldstein, defending, said ‘there were people above’ Salinger ‘in terms of directing what was to happen’, and he was ‘not at the top’.
Judge Potter said Salinger, of Woodford Road, Failsworth, Oldham, was a ‘central figure’ in the fraud. He pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and five counts of fraud, and was jailed for four years.
Judge Potter said Salinger ‘assumed identities’ and made sure, on occasions, he would not have to pay ‘up front’.
“It is quite clear to me that your actions had a significant effect on some of the companies targeted and some of the employees who were conned by you. Some have lasting concerns that their careers were affected and indeed, some have lost their careers.”
In a victim impact statement, an employee of one of the companies targeted, who authorised an order, said: “It was the worst time in my working career. It was seen as my fault. It became clear to me that I would not be able to further my employment.”
Salinger is also facing a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.