Gurpem Singh jailed for £80,000 elderly con

Jun 14 2009 by Adam Jupp, Sunday Sun

Mr Adams said: “She (Mrs Gilderoy) indicated a man had been selling her various items, including jumpers, electric blankets and ornaments and large sums of money had gone from her accounts to this person.”

Mark Saunders, defending, said: “This wasn’t something he decided to do as a means of making himself rich. He had been someone who worked as a market stall trader for a number of years legitimately and became involved through family ties with gambling.

“That became a problem to such an extent that Mr Singh became very indebted as a result and couldn’t resolve the debt in any other way than the means he resorted to.”

Singh was sentenced to two-and-a-half years for each count, all to run concurrently. Passing sentence, Judge Beatrice Bolton said: “You are 36 and have pleaded guilty to an indictment involving elderly people, who you conned and bullied out of money amounting to £80,880.

“The method you used over a four-year period was selling to your victims property of all different sorts and types, which was of extremely low value and you were inflating the price and they were buying it from you.

“In addition, particularly with Mrs Molineaux and Mr Hogg, you kept going back until, in reality all their money was gone.”

She added: “One can get a flavour of how you behaved because I have seen a transcript of how you behaved with Mr Salt.

“It is quite clear that you pressed and pressed and pressed and bullied and bullied and bullied by pretending to be his friend, pretending to be a nice person and looking at his bank to see how much money you could get. This is absolutely appalling behaviour.”

Judge Bolton added: “Really, this was the exploitation of elderly and vulnerable people for as much as you could get out of them, partly to satisfy your debts, caused by your own gambling, over a four-year period. It was Newcastle, Durham and Leeds and you showed no mercy to them and had no compunction about taking what you could get.”

Det Sgt Neil Whitehead said: “This was a spineless act of greed by a man who preyed on vulnerable, elderly people. It has had a detrimental effect on their health which continues beyond the conclusion of the court case.”

Det Insp Lee Buzzeo said: “These were despicable crimes against extremely vulnerable members of our community and I’m glad Singh has now been dealt with by the courts.

“Singh was arrested last April as part of the forcewide Operation Payback campaign, as we suspected him of stealing from elderly people and living his life on the back of crime.

“We will not tolerate this sort of disgraceful behaviour, which takes a degree of calculating and planning, where vulnerable people in our neighbourhood are deliberately targeted.

“We’ll continue to take enforcement action against those who earn money from crime, while providing as much support as possible, along with our partners, to provide support for those who need it most and reduce their risk of becoming a victim of crime.”

Page 3 - Son tells of scam artist's intimidation tactics >>