Alert for con gang af ter €1k sting on woman, 87
CALLOUS fraudsters who drove a confused elderly woman with dementia to the bank to withdraw almost €1,000 are being hunted by gardaí.
The frail 87-year-old mistakenly drew €90 initially out of her bank account but was immediately sent back in to the cashier by the cruel con artists to withdraw ten times that amount.
The shocking incident, in Dunboyne, Co. Meath, only came to light a week later when her daughter, who looks after her mother’s finances, checked a bank statement after becoming suspicious.
The daughter – who does not want to be named in case it would identify her mother who lives partly alone – is now appealing for neighbours to watch out for older people in their neighbourhoods, especially coming into the winter months.
She said: ‘I took money out of my Mam’s account for the doctor and when I looked at the receipt, I thought the balance was a bit low. My husband came home from visiting her and he asked me who had power-hosed the outside footpath.
‘That’s what made me suspicious so I checked further and the bank teller said Mam had come into the bank a week earlier and withdrew €90. A little while later she returned, saying she had made a mistake and meant to take out €900.
‘When the teller asked what it was for my Mam told her it was for a stair lift, which we had been talking about getting.
‘When I asked Mam, she said the money was to pay the men for work around the house.’
The worried daughter said her mother was unharmed in the incident and doesn’t realise that she was scammed.
‘‘She has dementia and gets easily confused. Myself and my siblings clubbed together and got her home redecorated two years ago – no work was needed on the house. We checked around and neighbours said they saw a shiny new van at the house on Tuesday, September 5, but they thought nothing of it.’
The family now believe the occupants of the van approached their mother with a view to charging for cleaning gutters or power-hosing outside and saw their chance when they noticed the elderly woman’s fragile disposition. ‘€900 is a lot for power-hosing the footpath. Can you believe they actually drove her down to the bank and waited for her, drove her home and then disappeared without a second thought?’
She is now urging all neighbours to be vigilant around the county.
‘Our neighbours are fantastic and they didn’t realise what was going on but I’m asking others not to take things for granted. If they see a van outside the home of an elderly neighbour, call in to check it out or ring their family.
‘I was so angry when I found out what they did to Mam, that if they got all the karma I wished on them, they are in for miserable lives. They are scum of the earth. How they live with themselves I don’t know.’
Gardaí declined to comment but it’s believed local CCTV footage is being looked at to catch the fraudsters. Local Fianna Fáil Councillor Damien O’Reilly appealed for anyone who may have noticed anything suspicious to contact gardaí.
‘They are the scum of the earth’