Conman stole £30,000 from his friends
A CONMAN stole tens of thousands of pounds from close friends and even from his partner by spinning a web of lies.
Scott Newland even pretended his father had died and he needed to pay funeral costs in order to gain sympathy – and cash – from his victims.
Newland spent months lying to his girlfriend, who works for the police, and stringing her along with the promise that they were getting a house together.
The defendant also scammed strangers over the sale of a computer through Facebook Marketplace using a doctored version of his girlfriend’s police ID card to bolster his credibility.
Cardiff Crown Court yesterday heard the 25-year-old’s actions were born out of desperation after running up huge debts through his gambling addiction.
Jason Howells, prosecuting, said between April and October of last year Newland told a series of lies to friends – some of whom he had known since primary school – and to his partner to secure loans of money, most of which were never repaid.
One of the lies he told his lifelong friends was that his father had died and he needed help with the funeral costs and to cover the bills for a legal dispute with his brother over his inheritance. His friends, eager to help someone they regarded as one of their best friends, gave him the money – in one case giving him cash the victim had been saving as a deposit for his own home.
The court heard that Newland also spent months lying to his new partner who worked for the police.
The defendant told her that he was an immigration officer with the Home Office, that he had £47,000 in a trust fund he would soon be able to access, and that he needed help in the short term to buy out his ex-partner from their old home.
The prosecutor said Newland led the woman to believe that once the purchase went went through the house in Blackwood would be theirs and she accordingly paid for items like new furniture and kitchen and gardening work to be done. As what was supposed to be moving-in day approached the woman even packed up all her possessions ready to go to the new address.
But it was all lies. Newland’s father was, in fact alive and well, and the defendant was not in the process of buying his former partner’s share in the house.
The court heard that the defendant also scammed strangers out of money by claiming to be selling a Mac computer through Facebook Marketplace. He conned four people into sending him money in order buy the computer – using an edited image of his partner’s police ID card to bolster his credentials as a seller and giving the buyers false delivery tracking numbers for the computer he in fact never sold or posted.
His fraudulent activities came to light when one of the people who was conned out of money on Facebook went to police, telling them about the police ID he had been shown, and an investigation was launched.
The prosecutor said that in total Newland stole £17,500 from four of his friends, £6,800 from his girlfriend, and £5,318 from the Facebook victims.
In a series of victim impact statements which were read to the court the defendant’s friends said how they felt betrayed by someone they regarded as a best friend. In her victim statement the defendant’s partner explained the devastating effect of being conned by the man she loved and how her life “crumbled before my eyes” as his lies were exposed. She said: “How can my life go from perfect to nothing in a moment?”
Newland, of Y Cilgant, Penyrheol, Caerphilly, admitted nine counts of fraud by false representation and to one of making or supplying a false instrument – the edited police ID card. He has no previous convictions.
Owen Williams, for Newland, said the defendant was genuinely remorseful for his actions. He said his client had been in the “grips of a gambling addiction” and was £35,000 in debt at the time of the offending and though he knew what he was doing was wrong had acted out of “desperation”.
He said Newland lost his IT job when he was charged with the frauds but has since found work with a private security firm working in the CCTV monitoring base.
The barrister added that the defendant was now addressing his gambling problem with the help of Gamblers Anonymous.
Recorder Sean Bradley told the defendant his lies to his partner and to people who regarded him as a close friend had been persistent and planned.
He described his actions as “cruel and callous” and said he had told them stories “that no right-thinking person would think were made up”.
The recorder said Newland’s victims had been left feeling hurt, embarrassed, and humiliated – but that the defendant was the only one who should be feeling shame.
He added that the use of police ID card in carrying out one of the frauds was a seriously aggravating factor as it risked undermining the public’s trust in the police.
Giving the defendant a one-third discount for his guilty pleas the recorder sentenced him to a total of 28 months in prison. Newland will serve half that period in custody before being released on licence under the UK government’s early release scheme to serve the remainder in the community.