Mother, 35, ‘scammed £57,000 from pensioners’

A MOTHER posed as a gas and electricity worker and a council official to scam pensioners out of more than £57,000, a court heard yesterday.

Cheryl Mitchell faces 27 fraud charges alleged to have been committed over seven years.

The 35-year-old is said to have gained pensioners’ trust before stealing their bank cards or financial details to buy goods and services online.

In one case she allegedly persuaded a 69-year-old he was not entitled to his state pension because he had too much money in the bank. Prosecutors claim she took him to a Royal Bank of Scotland branch in Aberdeen and induced him to withdraw cash, giving her £13,000.

She is said to have told him the money had gone into a Post Office account in his name when she had allegedly taken it.

Mitchell, of Aberdeen, denied all charges at the city’s sheriff court yesterday.

One alleged victim, Iris Gordon, 76, of Aberdeen, said she was contacted by Clydesdale Bank staff over possible signs of fraud in her account.

Miss Gordon insisted she had not given her bank details to anyone before the alleged offence took place. But she said a woman visited her home and returned with her bank card a few days later.

She said: ‘She came to my door and said she could change my electric account to her one, which was the Hydro board.

‘She said she could get me a better deal... I would get a smaller electric bill.’

She added: ‘I think I gave her my bank card to get this change done. But then we discovered when I got my statement she had used it to make several purchases.’

The court heard that a cheque for £1,960 had been deposited from her account. But Miss Gordon said she did not know anyone called Andrew Mitchell, the person the cheque was made out to.

Mitchell is also accused of fraudulently obtaining more than £56,000 of tax credits by stating she was a lone mother-of-eight instead of two between 2013 and 2016.

The trial continues today.