The bank smelled a rat.. and the rat was you
Judge condemns fraudster who duped friend and OAPs
he exploited, violated and manipulated my rights feeney’s victim who was his friend
A FRAUDSTER who duped kids into thinking he was a theatre star has been jailed for another scam.
Gary Feeney, who took cash from young scots acting hopefuls before being exposed as a Walter Mitty, has been locked up for more than three years over a £20,000 credit con.
The 55-year-old targeted two pensioners and a vulnerable pal in his latest scam before pleading guilty to 11 fraud offences in england.
a court heard Feeney, who had recently been living in Workington in Cumbria, went by 12 different aliases and applied for credit in false names from credit card companies, banks and catalogue sales firms.
Jailing Feeny for 39 months, a judge slammed the serial con artist for his sickening betrayal of a close friend, saying: “You were a cuckoo in the nest.
“stealing from her, from under her nose.”
six of Feeney’s crimes involved the pal, who he knew through a lake District charity singing group. she knew him as Gary adams but was also aware he went by Hume and Feeney.
Prosecutor andrew evans by sally hinD told Carlisle Crown Court: “she was persuaded to let him live rent-free as he had told her he had nowhere to go.”
The woman loaned him money which was not repaid before Feeney used her name and details to set up credit with different companies.
Feeney used credit to buy thousands of pounds worth of goods.
The prosecutor said: “although intermittent payments were made to keep the accounts alive, substantial amounts remain unpaid.”
The total sum of credit taken out in the woman’s name was £18,197.89.
In an impact statement, she told how Feeney had repaid her kindness with “lies and fraud”.
she said: “He stole my identity. Over this time he exploited, violated and manipulated my rights.”
Feeney also befriended his parents’ neighbour, a 97-yearold vascular dementia sufferer in Windermere who has since died. When Feeney was arrested, he told officers: “It’s OK, I’ve been expecting this.”
Police searched offices in Kendal rented by Feeney and they were full of boxes. When interviewed, he said he did not work and was on benefits.
He was released under investigation and moved to the Cumbrian coastal village of seascale, where he befriended an 89-year-old widower with
failing eyesight before accounts were sought in the pensioner’s name with Next, Freemans and, unsuccessfully, Co-op Bank.
sentencing judge, His Honour Michael Fanning said: “The Co-op smelled a rat. The rat was you.” The total credit fraud amounted to £20,161.39.
Charlotte Phillips, defending, asked for Feeney to be spared prison saying he had been managing the ambleside singing group and “fell on hard times”.
But Judge Fanning told Feeney: “You knew exactly what you were doing. This was motivated by pure greed.”
Feeney had previously been charged with defrauding his own parents but charges were dropped.
In 2012, Feeney, then known as adams, set up Music Theatre in the Borders village of Newcastleton and charged acting hopefuls £100 to take part in a school production of les Miserables. But about 30 kids were left heartbroken when he was unmasked as a Walter Mitty character.
He falsely claimed to be a West end musical star but was unknown to impresario sir Cameron Mackintosh’s firm.
Our sister paper the sunday Mail revealed the true identity of adams as on-the-run fraudster Gary Feeney a year later when his background emerged at arbroath sheriff Court.
Five years previously, he had pleaded guilty to frauds worth £7500 but did a runner before being sentenced.
He moved from Friockheim, angus, to the Borders and changed his name to adams.
In Newcastleton, adams had boasted that he had worked with Michael Ball, elaine Paige, Charlotte Church and Tina arena and performed in Phantom of the Opera and Miss saigon in london’s West end.
But his Music Theatre scotland firm did not have the performing rights for les Miserables and parents lost their cash.
One parent who lost £100 said at the time: “Gary is a very talented musician and has the gift of the gab so I can see now how we were all taken in by him.”
He was sentenced to community service and ordered to repay all funds.