Jailed, ‘despicable’ conman who stole £18k from OAPs

A BOGUS workman who conned vulnerable pensioners out of thousands of pounds has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Darren Baxter, 28, and his gang swindled three OAPs out of £18,000 in ‘a callous, selfish and despicable’ crime.

One elderly cancer patient was even forced to go to the bank and withdraw cash for the fraudsters – and ordered to tell staff it was for gifts for his grandchildren, Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard.

Baxter had pleaded guilty to acting with others to defraud three people – aged between 77 and 85 – of £18,000, and of attempting to con a couple in their eighties out of £2,000.

His gang told the couple, from Edinburgh, that their roof was infested with woodworm and they were shown a piece of loft insulation containing maggots.

Fiscal Depute Anthony Steele told the court the husband was suspicious and said he wanted another opinion. The roof was inspected and deemed fine.

On the same day they were targeted, Baxter and another man told a 77-year-old householder in Edinburgh that there was a loose tile on his roof and he was shown a piece of wood crawling with maggots.

Baxter’s accomplice told the elderly man it would cost £1,800 to carry out the work but only £1,000 if he paid cash.

He paid the £1,000 cash – but discovered nothing had been done to his roof when he checked later.

Another victim was a widower, from West Calder, West Lothian, who suffered from diabetes and prostate cancer.

He was shown wood shavings containing white worms and asked for payment upfront for repair work.

Over eight days he was driven to a bank to withdraw money said to be for the purchase of materials. He was told that if questioned by bank staff, he was to claim he wanted the cash to buy presents for his grandchildren. But Mr Steele said the bank manager was suspicious and called police. No woodworm or structural failings were found in the pensioner’s roof.

An 85-year-old Glasgow woman was also driven to a bank, in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, to withdraw £1,500 after being told a cheque was not acceptable.

She was told there was a leak in her roof but when her daughter later checked she found nothing wrong and that no repairs had been carried out.

The offences were carried out between November 16 and December 15 last year.

Defence solicitor Hugh Trainor told the court his client had a drug problem but fully appreciated the anguish that had been caused to the elderly victims.

Baxter, from the Fife area but now an inmate of HMP Low Moss in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, was jailed for 30 months by Sheriff Thomas Welsh, QC, who called the frauds ‘a callous, selfish and despicable course of conduct’.

Forced cancer patient to the bank