The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Angus fraudster took £6k from pensioner
Bogus workman Alan Shaw caught out by Montrose TSB staff member
An Angus bogus workman who conned a pensioner out of nearly £6,000 was caught out by a quick-thinking bank worker.
Alan Shaw repeatedly turned up at Elma Thomson’s home and demanded payment for roofing jobs he had not done.
Ms Thomson, 89, who lives in a council house in Inverbervie, paid up despite never asking for any of the work to be carried out.
A court heard Shaw threatened to take the tiles from her roof if she did not stump up.
The Montrose fraudster took £3,900 in cash from the OAP and a cheque for £2,000.
His scam ended after he told a cashier at the TSB in Montrose the cheque was from his gran. The employee knew Ms Thomson had no living relatives and raised the alarm.
Shaw was sentenced to 270 hours of unpaid work and ordered to repay his victim after he previously admitted defrauding her between July 2016 and January 2017.
A workman who conned a pensioner out of nearly £6,000 has been spared jail.
Alan Shaw repeatedly turned up at Elma Thomson’s home and told her he had carried out roofing work which she needed to pay him for.
Ms Thomson, who lives in a council house at Inverbervie never requested any work but paid Shaw on several occasions.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard yesterday that Shaw was generally friendly to the 89-year-old, but on one occasion threatened to remove the tiles from the roof if she did not pay up.
The Montrose fraudster obtained £3,900 in cash and a cheque for £2,000, which he tried to pay into the TSB in the town – telling the cashier he had received the cheque from his grandmother.
However, the bank employee knew Ms Thomson had no living relatives, and raised the alarm.
Aberdeenshire Council, which maintains the property, began investigating, and discovered no work had been carried out.
Yesterday, 32-year-old Shaw appeared for sentencing after previously admitted defrauding Ms Thomson between July 2016 and January 2017.
Shaw’s defence lawyer Norman Fraser claimed his client had been working for a company and initially believed it had carried out the work, only to find out he had been part of a scam.
He said Shaw was in full-time employment and was “well thought of”, and that he would be willing to pay compensation at a rate of £300 per month if he was spared jail.
Sheriff Sukwinder Gill considered fixing a proof of mitigation to look into the claims Shaw had made, but decided not to put his victim through the ordeal.
Passing sentence she said: “This is an extremely serious offence – you picked on the most vulnerable member of the community.
“That is shameful behaviour and a despicable thing to do to someone of that age.”
She made Shaw, of Inch Terrace in Montrose, subject to supervision for two years, ordered him to carry out 270 hours of unpaid work and to repay £3,900 in compensation.