Simon Read: Don't let our old folk fall victim to the cruel conmen

When a bank cashier in north London was confronted by a trembling 89-year-old pensioner asking to take £15,000 out of her bank account in cash earlier this year, she knew something was wrong.

So the cashier, who luckily actually knew the pensioner, called the police and their investigations revealed that the woman had been the victim of a rogue trader.

This week the crooked builder was jailed for 18 months after Judge Sheelagh Canavan at Snaresbrook Crown Court said: “This is essentially a confidence fraud.”

Adam Rafferty, 26, had turned up at Elizabeth Arnold’s house to do a minor repair job on her windows in return, supposedly, for her having an advertising board outside her home. But he then told Ms Arnold she had damp in her walls and it would cost £15,000 to repair. He handed her an invoice for the amount and sent her off to the bank to get the cash.

I have growing concern at the number of crooks who are targeting older people. Rafferty had been to prison for a similar offence in 2010, in other words he is a career con artist.

He’s far from the only one. Only a few weeks ago I wrote about a scumbag named John Jenkins, a builder who fleeced a pensioner out of half a million pounds over three years, for which he was given a sixyear jail sentence. His victim’s plight only came to light only after she was forced to ask a neighbour for money to buy food.

Both stories emphasise the need for greater protection and support for vulnerable people. But we can all help, simply by checking on the older folk who live in our own communities.

s.read@independent.co.uk

Twitter: @simonnread