A fraudster who spun an “elaborate and highly imaginative web of lies” to con several people out of more than £73,000 has been sentenced to 33 months in jail.
Heartless Michael Walker, 56, managed to persuade an elderly man to hand over approximately £65,000 after convincing him to buy into the fake diamond mine.
Walker’s lies were so convincing he also managed to get customers at the Clachnaharry Inn to part with cash between January 2015 and October 2016.
Some were told it was to pay for medical bills due to his “illnesses”, which included leukaemia and Hodgkin’s Disease.
The court had been told previously that Walker lured his victims into “investing” in a non-existent South African diamond mine and pretended to be dying from cancer to his friends, who he also conned into paying for non-existent holidays.
His biggest victim of his scheme was a pensioner friend of his mother’s.
Walker was living with the elderly man for a time at a property in Mansfield Park, Kirkhill, when he launched his scheme in February 2009.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that Walker told his victim, who was 69 at the time, that he had a friend called Barney Yorkston, who was a mercenary in South Africa and owned a diamond mine.
The pensioner obtained equity and, up until October 2016, handed over £65,000 to Walker.
Cancer conman targeted pub customers
Fiscal depute Susan Love said Yorkston did not exist but Walker produced emails and text messages purporting to be from him in order to encourage his victim to keep on investing in exchange for gifts and holidays, which never materialised.
Walker’s lies were so convincing he also managed to get customers at the Clachnaharry Inn to part with cash between January 2015 and October 2016.
Some were told it was to pay for medical bills due to his “illnesses”, which included leukaemia and Hodgkin’s Disease.
He told a woman he was terminally ill and persuaded her to part with £2,871 for flights and accommodation to London and Croatia.
Ms Love said: “He told her he was dying from cancer and he wanted the money to go to Croatia because it was on his bucket list. He also asked her for money to pay for private medical care.
“But she became suspicious when his ‘chemotherapy’ did not appear to affect his health.”
Ms Love added that two other men who had been customers of the same pub paid Walker £5,517, thinking it was either an investment into the diamond mine or to pay for holidays he would arrange for them.
‘He was in a spiral of debt’
The prosecutor said that Walker either cancelled the holidays he never booked or didn’t turn up at the airport, leaving one hapless victim to pay for another flight.
Walker was appearing for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court following the preparation of a background report.
Defence counsel Bill Adam said his client had no previous convictions and intended to move to Ayr to live and work.
He added: “He appreciates his behaviour was inexcusable and reprehensible as well as the effect of this on the people who trusted him.
“He abused that trust. He was in a spiral of debt and kept trying to play catch-up.”
Sheriff Cruickshank told Walker: “This fraudulent scheme was perpetrated over a six-and-a-half-year period and was an elaborate and highly imaginative web of lies. Then you went on to hoodwink others to obtain over £8,000.”
Walker’s sentence was backdated to his date of remand – October 4 last year – meaning that with only half the sentence being served, he could be released in weeks.