OAP TELLS HOW HIS HOME WAS REPEATEDLY RAIDED They would have left us with nothing
Cold-call conmen returned again and again, court told
A bogus workman swiped thousands of pounds from a stroke victim before returning to steal his wife’s handbag, a court heard.
William Reid, 27, is charged with talking his way into the home of Leslie and Margaret Auld, both 69, and trousering the cash.
They claim he raided their house after cold-calling and offering to prune trees in their garden.
During a trial at Paisley Sheriff Court, Reid denied stealing £2,400 in savings from the couple as well as the bag.
Mr Auld sells children’s toys and pyjamas to boost his income and kept his profits in
a living room cabinet.
The retired bank manager insists Reid and a pal distracted him by asking to see his stock, while accomplices went room to room and stole from him.
Mr Auld told the court : “The money was to visit my grandchildren in Ireland.
“We are both retired. We have worked all our lives.
“We are just a couple of old pensioners.
“But, to some people, we are an opportunity to come back and back and back.
“They would have left us with nothing.”
The court heard Reid turned up at the couple’s home in Paisley’s Mansionhouse Road and blagged his way in with another man.
His brother Thomas, 46, of the Redburn caravan site, in Irvine, North Ayrshire, was also charged with the theft, but this was dropped and he was called as a witness for the Crown.
Fiscal depute Maureen McGovern asked him whether he had visited the couple to offer gardening services on the day of the alleged theft.
He replied: “Possibly. I can’t remember. I’m full of drugs. “I used to be on Valium.” Mr Auld told how he kept stock from his clothing business at home, with £3,400 in three bundles stashed in the cabinet.
He claims William Reid and the other man, described as having dark hair, walked into the hall and began asking about different sizes of sleepwear.
Mr Auld added: “He stepped uninvited into my house.
“The dark-haired one started asking if I had any Incredible Hulk, which were down in my basement.
“When I went downstairs, they were standing at the entrance to the living room and dining room.
“The thought of maybe getting £40 for the pyjamas – it was money I didn’t start the day with.”
Mr Auld told how the other man feigned a headache and was taken through to the kitchen for paracetamol and water.
On the way through, he noticed a display of Hornsea pottery and asked: “Is there money in that?”
Once in the kitchen, Mr Auld maintains the visitor was “stalling” and pleaded with him not to leave the room to fetch Peppa Pig dresses he was selling.
The pair eventually left the house, where two others were working on the trees.
Mr Auld locked up and told them he would pay them when he got back from a 20-minute journey to take his wife to the nearby Royal Alexandra Hospital.
Reid, of Cable Drive, Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire, and the other men were gone when he returned around 1.35pm last May 6.
Mr Auld told how a string of bogus callers turned up at his home, which boasts a sauna and bar, in the weeks after the drama.
He revealed he chased a man down the street after he was spotted prowling around the garden.
More bogus callers turned up on a later date, claiming to be from a security company.
They claimed they were there to turn an alarm off, despite none being fitted.
On another occasion during the same month, Mrs Auld had her handbag nicked after letting a man into her home.
He claimed to be from a burglar alarm company.
She invited him in because the house was being fitted with a security system after money went missing, but she later noticed she had been tricked again.
Mrs Auld said: “I noticed my bag was away.
“I thought, ‘Oh, good God, what have I done?’”
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