Crook will not have to pay back money

A ‘WICKED’ fraudster who fleeced £168,800 from a church deacon in Runcorn will not have to pay any of the cash back.

Paul Riant, 51, pictured right, formerly of Manor Fell, Palacefields, appeared at Chester Crown Court on Friday for a Proceeds Of Crime Act hearing but was found to have no assets.

He was slapped with a nominal amount of £1 but will not have to repay it.

Riant was sent down for four-and-a-half years in November for defrauding a huge sum of cash from Rev Deryck Sankey by deploying an ‘elaborate’ array of scams to drain him of £80,000 of life savings, equity in his house, loans and cash borrowed from friends.

Serial criminal Riant had begun exploiting the reverend’s hopes to help him rebuild his life in 2009 and claimed he needed cash for tasks such as job interviews abroad and assistance following road traffic collisions.

His reign of financial abuse ended when police visited Rev Sankey at home on December 1, 2015, and found him sat beneath a blanket with no heating on in the cold, awaiting a call from Riant who claimed he was in Mozambique.

Investigators found that devious Riant had backed up his fiendish series of scams with fabricated letters and was even pretending to be associates on multiple phones to back up his claims.

Riant had come into contact with Rev Sankey when his mother had been the housekeeper at Our Lady’s Church in Palacefields.

His past offences included attempted robbery, possession of an offensive weapon and fraudulent use of a vehicle licence.

At Riant’s sentencing hearing, His Honour Judge Patrick Thompson said Riant had perpetuated a ‘particularly wicked fraud’ against a ‘very kind and vulnerable man’. Cheshire police announced in December that it had teamed up with banks and Trading Standards to give staff the chance to alert the authorities if they suspect fraud.

The force said crooks have increasingly been targeting elderly, vulnerable and lonely victims to cheat them out of cash.