Cruel fraudsters ordered a taxi to take their frail 87-year-old victim to the bank so they could clean out his account, a court has been told.
One of the scammers, Gary McKinley, from Glasgow, has now been jailed for his part in the heartless con, which saw almost £5,000 of the Aberdeen pensioner’s savings taken.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told the fraudsters impersonated bank staff and convinced the OAP – who has since passed away – that his account was under attack and he must transfer his money into a ‘safe’ account.
But that account actually belonged to 27-year-old McKinley – who subsequently used the money to purchase foreign currency.
The Press and Journal requested a photograph of McKinley, but Police Scotland refused to release one, saying they “have no image to provide”.
How the con worked
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told the court that on the morning of September 19 2017 the 87-year-old received a phone call from a man pretending to be from the TSB Bank.
The caller stated that he worked for the fraud department and that they had received information that there was suspicious activity on the account.
“The complainer was advised that he should transfer his money into a secure account to prevent him from being a further victim and was told to attend at his bank immediately to transfer the funds,” Mr Middleton said.
“The complainer advised the male on the phone that he was not fit enough to walk to the bank and a taxi was arranged to take him there.
“At the bank, he transferred £4,900 into the accused’s account.
“The complainer then returned home and received a telephone call informing him that the police would arrive to take fingerprints.
“At that time, the complainer contacted the police himself to confirm their attendance and that was when he realised that he had been the victim of fraud.”
McKinley’s lawyer claimed that his client – who is currently serving five years in prison for drug charges – only made £400 from the fraud.
McKinley pleaded guilty to one charge of purchasing foreign currency using money that had been fraudulently transferred into and withdrawn from his bank account.
Fraud scheme was ‘quite slick’
Defence agent Brian McGuire told the court that McKinley had been used as a “mule” as part of a financial fraud scheme to “distance the main players”.
“What had been happening is that the masterminds involved in this were eventually traced and caught by the police,” he said.
“However, the 11 other people who appeared on the indictment had in effect been preyed upon by these people.
“They came by people who were in need of money and asked them if they would allow them to use their accounts.
“Effectively, going back to the days of Father Ted, I think the words used were that the ‘money would be resting in his account’.
“The money rested in Mr McKinley’s account and these various other people’s accounts for 24 hours – it was quite slick.”
Victim didn’t live to see justice
Sheriff Neil Kinnear described the offence as an “unusual charge”.
He told McKinley: “I accept fully that you were not the prime mover in this but your actions of transferring the money into your account facilitated people doing this to old and vulnerable people.
“You also have previous convictions for fraud and this was connected to serious organised crime.”
Sheriff Kinnear sentenced McKinley, of Faifley Road, Clydebank, to four months in prison.
Sadly, McKinley’s victim didn’t live to see justice served against the man who conned him.
A neighbour who knew the pensioner for nearly 50 years told The Press and Journal that he died in September last year.
The ex-banker said she used to speak to him about finance all the time, adding: “I’m very surprised to hear that he was taken in by something like this”.
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