Serial cancer lies landlord is jailed for £13k fraud
ASERIAL fraudster who said his son died from cancer to con house-hunters out of thousands of pounds has been jailed.
Neil Jackson, 35, posed as a landlord to rent rooms on free ads website Gumtree – and took big deposits from would-be tenants.
Jackson conned nine people out of nearly £13,000 for deposits for the fully furnished three-bedroom home by lying that his son had cancer.
Cardiff Crown Court heard Jackson took deposits ranging from £1,000 to £2,700, before repeatedly cancelled move-in dates with stories about his two-year-old’s fight with cancer.
Jackson told one potential tenant his son was seriously ill in hospital and even told another the youngster had died.
It was the second time Jackson used his son to commit fraud – having been jailed in 2012 for conning more than £60,000 from colleagues at Tesco.
Prosecutor Andrew Kendall said: “He told his victims to secure the property he’d need a £1,400 deposit.
“He gave them a date when they could move in and asked for their details to register them.
“But he would then come up with excuse after excuse why they couldn’t move in and pushed back the move-in date. He said he couldn’t drop off the keys to Cardiff because his son had fallen ill in Plymouth.
“He’d say things like he blamed nurses for not stitching his son back properly and even told one victim his son had died.”
Mr Kendall said the lies had a “great impact” on certain victims, with one couple left homeless and another was left living in a caravan.
He also pressured one woman into borrowing money from friends and selling possessions so he could “reserve” the home for her.
Mr Kendall said Jackson was eventually rumbled when some victims researched his name online and found news reports relating to previous convictions for fraud.
He had been jailed for six years in 2012 for conning colleagues at his Tesco store out of more than £60,000 by saying he and his young son were dying of cancer – only to blow the money on holidays in Las Vegas and Hawaii.
Jackson, of Penylan, Cardiff, pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud and taking a total of £12,840 from his victims.
David Pinnell, defending, said Jackson was “genuinely remorseful” and used the money to pay off debts to thugs who protected him in prison. Mr Pinnell said: “He says he did not benefit from these offences and the money he received was passed on.”
But the judge, Recorder of Cardiff Eleri Rees told Jackson: “You have to understand given your track record for elaborate lies the court finds it hard to take what you’re saying at face value.
“Some of the victims were in precarious financial situations so the impact on them has been very serious. Others ended up living in a caravan.” Jackson was jailed for two years. In his previous fraud Jackson told workers at Tesco both he and his young son were dying.
He was jailed for six years in 2012 for his cancer lies.
Tesco store manager Jackson tricked kind-hearted workmates for three years by claiming he had cancer and his son had cerebral palsy.
Supermarket workers handed him cheques and wads of cash to pay for private treatment. But there was nothing wrong with Jackson’s health – and that his son was a healthy child with no sign of a brain disorder.
Jailing him at the time Judge David Morris told him: “By blatant deception and utter lies you elicited sympathy for your supposed medical condition.
“Your deceit was profound and despicable and it was a repeated campaign against people who you knew to be vulnerable because of their generosity of spirit.”
Speaking after the trial, Detective Constable Angela Tchalabi of South Wales Police, said: “Neil Jackson stooped as low as he could in claiming the death of his young child in order to fool his victims.
“He took people’s money with absolutely no intention of providing them with a place to live, and even made one couple homeless for a brief time. But his concoction of lies raised suspicions and his fraudulent past caught up with him.”