Sunday Sun

MAN TOOK THOUSANDS OF POUNDS

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Her last contact with him was in November 2015 and she reported him missing when contact ceased.

The woman says she handed over a total of £10,200.

She said in a victim statement: “With the issues I had I was over the moon I had met him. He was kind, attractive and wanted a family and to get married.

“I believed what he told me, that’s why I constantly transferre­d money.

“He has ruined me financiall­y, emotionall­y and psychologi­cally.”

Tuthill formed a relationsh­ip with a 48-year-old woman he met on Plenty of Fish around the same time, in May 2015.

After they started going out, she discovered she had breast cancer and needed a double mastectomy.

Mr Pallister said: “The defendant was very attentive and visited her in hospital but clearly then became interested in the amount of money her daughter had saved for a flat or house of her own.

“He spun a story that he would like to help her out financiall­y.

“He told the daughter he was selling his house in Gosforth for £600,000 and he would use some of that money to buy the house for her.”

He persuaded the 24-year-old to transfer £3,492 of her £10,000 savings to him to pay off her debts. She was taken in by his offer to buy her the house, which never happened and she never saw her money again.

The daughter said: “I’m really annoyed, he preyed on my mother when she was fighting a terrible disease.

“I’m in shock he would prey on someone with cancer when his own father had the same illness.

“Me and my mother don’t suffer fools which just highlights how calculatin­g he has been in what he did to me and my family.”

Tuthill, of no fixed address, who has no previous conviction­s, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud. Prosecutor­s say the total value was £19,678.95 but the defence argue it was closer to £13,000.

Jailing him for two years and four months,

Recorder Ian Harris said it was not necessary to determine the truth of the value of the frauds as it would not affect the sentence.

The judge said: “There was a period of dishonest, deceitful and disgracefu­l behaviour.

“You weaseled your way into the affections of these three females and financiall­y abused them.

“You moved like a financial predator from one relationsh­ip to another while systematic­ally financiall­y and emotionall­y violating these women.

“While they warmed to you, you were cold and calculated.

“You took gross advantage of them. It was cold-hearted and encompasse­d enormous persistent lies.

“You manipulate­d your way into the affections of the three female victims who believed and trusted you.”

Peter Walsh, defending, said: “He used false accounts about himself because of his desperatio­n to get money. He was running into financial difficulti­es. For the last few years he has lived on the verges of society, living in hostels.”

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