A man has been jailed for six years after he pretended to be a ‘financial adviser’ to dupe people out of nearly £600,000 to pay for his gambling addiction.
According to the Manchester Evening News, Christopher Summers conned three people; including an elderly woman with dementia, who wrote 14 cheques worth almost £500,000 over a three-year period.
Summers tricked people into lending him money for investments, with the promise of interest in return, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
He admitted three counts of fraud.
Notified police
Judge Angela Nield prevented the identities of his victims from being made public and they were referred to as ‘Mrs A’, ‘Mr B’ and ‘Mrs C’ in court.
Prosecutor Brian Berlyne said: “Mrs A was between 84 and 88 at the time of this offence, she had a bank account with Santander. There was power of attorney in relation to members of her family, her mental state was deteriorating.
“Staff at Santander became suspicious about activity on this account in June 2019, they were made aware by Nationwide Bank about a cheque, they noticed other suspicious activities. Between September 2016 and April 2019, 14 cheques had been made payable to Mr Summers.”
The day after Santander froze the account, Summers took the woman to a bank branch asking for this to be reversed.
Media reports said a staff member realised Mrs A had little knowledge of finance and contacted the police.
Berlyne added: “She had instructed him after her husband’s death, Mrs A did not have any idea of the extent of her wealth.”
Place of work
Summers told his two other victims different lies to con them out of cash, the court heard.
Media reports said that Summers told Mr B he was investing in UK-based Howards Financial Advisers, and Mrs C that he was investing in a company in which someone was retiring.
Summers reportedly claimed to work at an unnamed financial advice firm, but the court heard he only rented a room in the company’s building and was self-employed.
