A callous conman who swindled an 81-year-old man with terminal cancer is behind bars today.
Serial fraudster David John Gascoigne, 55, charged the elderly man for unwanted roof work which he hadn’t started.
He took the victim to the bank to get £780 but was rumbled by vigilant bank staff and police, Teesside Crown Court heard.
The rogue trader had a history of defrauding old people and was not long out of prison for fleecing an 88-year-old woman with dementia.
Now convicted three times for scamming old people, he told a jury he’d taken people to banks to get money 100 times.
Judge George Moorhouse told him: “You seem to pick on elderly frail people, undertaking building works, or not as the case may be, and you just dupe them. That is very serious.
“The complainant in this case was 81 suffering from terminal cancer. It’s had a severe impact on him.”
Gascoigne faced a prison sentence of up to 10 years for the fraud. He thanked the judge from the dock as he was jailed for three years.
Prosecutor Sarah Mallett told how another man came to the latest victim’s Middlesbrough home, claiming he needed work doing on his chimney.
The 81-year-old man said: “I don’t really want this. I’ve got terminal cancer.”
The caller ignored him, walked past him to the back yard and let Gascoigne in through the back gates.
Gascoigne set up his ladders, climbed to the chimney and threw down stones, saying they were rotten and it would cost £780 to repair.
The elderly man did not know what to do, did not want any trouble and was frightened of what would happen if he told the men to leave.
He felt he had no choice but to get the work done, but said he didn’t have any money.
Gascoigne said he had to pay in cash and took him in his van to the bank on Linthorpe Road to withdraw it.
Bank staff were concerned about the pale and confused elderly man who came into the branch.
He told them: “I didn’t want building work doing but I’m having it done.”
A member of staff took down the registration of Gascoigne’s Transit van on Wilson Street.
The van pulled away when police arrived but Gascoigne was caught and arrested in traffic on Newport Road.
He denied knowledge of the fraud, protested his innocence and refused to answer questions.
His fingerprint was found on Gascoigne’s van and investigators linked him to the crime with CCTV.
He later told officers the victim did need the work done and it was stupid of him to take him to the bank.
Gascoigne, of Greenwood Road, Hartlepool, still denied the fraud and insisted to jurors: “I’m an honest builder.”
He said he gave the £780 quote to take down rotten bricks and rebuild the roof, but denied demanding payment.
He claimed they agreed to do the job straight away but he didn’t want the money until he’d finished.
He said it was the victim’s idea to go the bank and he merely offered a lift.
The jury convicted him unanimously of fraud after just over an hour.
His barrister Jim Withyman said: “He’s denied it, he’s been found to be guilty and lied to the jury.
“It’s a mean offence and the defendant knows that.
“He still maintains for 30 years he’s been a reputable builder.
“Of course his previous convictions would not really accord with that.”
Judge George Moorhouse jailed Gascoigne for three years and gave him a five-year Crasbo (Criminal Anti-social Behaviour Order) to stop him cold-calling.
The order bans him from phoning residents or visiting homes without without prior arrangement or invitation, intimidating or harassing vulnerable people or people aged 60 and over, and acting as a tradesman or builder or doing building works unless working for a registered company.
Gascoigne opposed the order, complaining it would restrict his work when he got out of prison.
Latest heartless swindle of serial fraudster who targeted elderly
David Gascoigne had not long been out of prison for fraud when he committed his latest heartless swindle.
He was given a three-year prison sentence in April last year for two offences of fraud. He did unnecessary minor repairs to the roof of an 88-year-old woman suffering with dementia.
He helped her to write a cheque for the work then returned, falsely claiming the cheque had been refused, and asked for a further payment.
In February 2011 he was jailed for two-and-a-half years for ripping off pensioners with shoddy repairs.
In a scam which raked in thousands of pounds, he persuaded a 79-year-old man to hand over £2,500 of his savings for sub-standard work on his flat. He conned an 84-year-old woman into letting him repair the leaking roof of her home before doing a botched job.
Posing as a helpful builder in a group offering to carry out repairs, he took victims to the bank to make withdrawals and pay him.
Newcastle Crown Court heard on that occasion he’d been a roofer but took to cold-calling after becoming addicted to heroin and losing his job.
Sentencing in 2011, Judge Michael Cartlidge said: “He made use of the fact that these are old folk. He spun a yarn about being able to help with repairs.”
In the latest case, the court was told he had previous convictions stretching back to 1975 including obtaining property by deception in 1983.
The court heard how new sentencing guidelines for fraud, due to come into effect soon, were affected by a notorious Teesside case.
Prosecutor Sarah Mallett said the case of John Darwin, the man who staged his disappearance at sea in an insurance fraud, leaving his sons thinking he was dead, emphasised the importance of the effect on victims.
