A fraudster conned friends out of tens of thousands of pounds by luring them into “investing” in a non-existent South African diamond mine and pretending he was dying of cancer.
Heartless Michael Walker managed to persuade an elderly man to hand over approximately £65,000 after convincing him to buy into the fake diamond mine.
Walker, 56, was living with his victim for a time at a property in Mansfield Park, Kirkhill, when he launched his dishonest 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.
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.
Fraudster is first offender
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.
Defence counsel Bill Adam said his client had no previous convictions and a background would be required.
He told Sheriff Gary Aitken: “He does suffer from benign tumours.”
The sheriff replied tersely: “I won’t accept a word of that without medical vouching.”
He deferred sentence on Walker, described as a prisoner at Low Moss Prison, until September 10.
But he warned him: “You should prepare yourself because it is exceedingly unlikely there will be anything other than a substantial custodial sentence in this case.”