DEPLORABLE
Fraud conned George out of life savings with tribunal scam
A FRAUDSTER who conned an Army veteran out of his life savings has been jailed for three years.
Agnes hewitt, 63, spun a web of lies which led to former soldier George Ross handing over huge sums of cash.
Heartless hewitt posed as a legal expert who told George, of Dalkeith, Midlothian, she could handle his employment dispute with the Royal British Legion after he was removed from his role around 2011.
She demanded payment for lawyers and sent fake paperwork before telling him the case had settled for £501,000.
No cash arrived and George began suffering health issues before dying in 2019.
Hewitt had called, demanding £10,000 as he lay in hospital and his family alerted police who found she had taken £52,684.
Investigators also discovered hewitt had fleeced company boss Michael Dooley and his wife Clare out of almost £140,000 during a dispute with a colleague at his firm, Strathkelvin Instruments Ltd.
Hewitt, of Bellshill, Lanarkshire, denied all wrongdoing and went on trial at hamilton Sheriff Court where she was convicted of obtaining £192,649 by fraud between January 2012 and December 2018.
Sheriff Linda Nicolson called her conduct “parasitic and deplorable” and said there was no alternative to prison.
George’s wife Ann told jurors: “I’m deeply hurt because my husband was a veteran and for someone to do that, taking every penny, is disgraceful.
“My husband was crying his eyes out on the phone to her in the hospital and he said to her ‘You have bled me dry and taken every penny’.”
Michael, of Bathgate, West Lothian, told how he had been advised by hewitt that he could sue a colleague.
She convinced Michael to pay for legal costs and write victim impact statements but he discovered no case existed.
Michael then found an online article which outed her as an embezzler and confronted her before police discovered she had taken £139,965 from him.
Speaking after the case, Clare said: “Three years is not enough but it’ll do.”
He was crying his eyes out on the phone to her
ANN ROSS ON HER HUSBAND’S ORDEAL