Fraudster conned £500,000 from vulnerable woman

TWO OTHERS DUPED BY ‘FINANCIAL ADVISER’ WITH GAMBLING ADDICTION

A MAN claiming to be a ‘financial adviser’ who conned people - including a woman in her 80s with dementia - out of nearly £600,000 to feed his gambling addiction has been jailed.

Christopher Summers, 59, duped three people into giving him hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Among his victims was a vulnerable woman with dementia, who had never been responsible for her finances and had no idea how much she had in the bank.

Summers targeted her and the elderly woman wrote 14 cheques worth almost £500,000 over the course of two years and seven months.

The conman tricked people into lending him money for investments, with the promise of interest in return, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

The father-of-two, of Walmersley Road, Bury, admitted three counts of fraud.

Judge Angela Nield banned identification of his three victims, who were referred to as ‘Mrs A,’ ‘Mr B’ and ‘Mrs C’ in court.

Prosecutor Brian Berlyne said: “Mrs A was between 84 and 88 at the time of this offence. There was power of attorney in relation to members of her family, her mental state was deteriorating.”

He told the court that staff at Santander had become suspicious about activity on her account in June 2019 and froze it. The next day, the brazen fraudster took his victim to the bank’s Ramsbottom branch, asking for this to be reversed. A staff member realised Mrs A had little knowledge of finance and contacted police.

Mr B loaned him £74,000 and Mrs C loaned him £101,000, both expecting to receive payment back with interest, the court heard.

Summers claimed to work at the financial advising service, but the court heard he only rented a room there and was selfemployed. He has been jailed for six years.