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Swindler who conned elderly out of £100k jailed for three years
AN UNSCRUPULOUS financial advisor from Castleton who is thought to have swindled more than £100,000 from vulnerable elderly victims has been jailed for three years.
A court heard how Raymond Melling (55) also failed to pay one victim’s care home fees despite taking thousands of pounds from the man’s bank account for himself.
Melling was operating as an independent financial advisor when the catalogue of fraud, forgery and deception offences took place.
Prosecutor Paul Newcombe told Teesside Crown Court the money taken was made up of “life savings or precious pension money being put aside for grandchildren”.
Mr Newcombe said one victim, from whom the majority of the money was taken, was an “ideal target” for Melling, as he suffered from Alzheimer’s and dementia and had no dependents.
He said: “He relied on the defendant to deal with his finances. He (Melling) knew he would not be discovered because the victim was too ill to know what was happening.”
The court was told Melling, now of Smith’s Dock Road, Normanby, Middlesbrough, failed to give his victim enough allowance money – less than 2.50 per week – so he had to rely on charity handouts to get by.
The victim, who was in his 70s, has died since the offences were committed.
When Melling’s home and business premises were searched, the victim’s cheque book – with pre-signed cheques – was found, leading to other investigations.
It was accepted by the court that Melling swindled around 77,000 from three main victims, but it is believed he fleeced his victims out of more than 100,000 in total after falsely promising to invest the money. He conned his victims by showing them forged insurance and financial documents.
At an earlier court appearance, Melling pleaded guilty to seven counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception, three counts of fraud and two of forgery between 2000 and 2008.
Duncan McReddie, defending, said credit should be given to Melling for his guilty pleas, which meant the victims did not have to appear in court.
He added: “Mr Melling does not seek to minimise or trivialise the offences. He accepts full responsibility for his crimes.”
Judge Peter Armstrong said of the main victim: “The indication is that toward the end if his life he did not have the sort of enjoyable lifestyle he might have had if you had not cleaned him out.”
He added: “These offences are so serious that only a custodial sentence will be justified.”
Melling was jailed for a total of three years.
The court heard police had seized around 66,000 from Melling.
Melling was previously jailed for 56 days in 2007 after an eight-year campaign of harassment against his Castleton neighbours.
People from the village were in court to see Melling sentenced for his most recent offences.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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