Men who defrauded Yorkshire pensioners out of thousands ordered to pay back £84,000

Fred Smith, 65, and Mitchell Seedhouse, 30, both of Cleese Park Traveller’s site, Great Wyrley, near Walsall, were told yesterday to repay £84,09.75 to elderly and vulnerable victims they defrauded between 2014 and 2016.

Both men were convicted at Teesside Crown Court of conspiracy to defraud in August 2018 and were sentenced to three years and five years’ imprisonment respectively for defrauding of 27 victims in locations including North Yorkshire and the East Riding.

The prosecution and subsequent Proceeds of Crime asset confiscation proceedings were brought by Operation Gauntlet, the multi-agency safeguarding team hosted at North Yorkshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service.

Coun Derek Bastiman, the county council’s executive member for Trading Standards, said: “It has taken some time, including as a result of delays caused by the pandemic, but we are delighted to finally be in a position to have secured compensation for the victims in this case.

“These defendants picked on the weak and elderly in a sophisticated, nationwide and deliberate fraud. “We are committed to achieving justice for vulnerable victims such as those in this case, including through use of the Proceeds of Crime Act to ensure monies are repaid.”

Speaking in 2018, one 85-year-old victim described the impact of the offending against him and said: “The entire encounter with Fred Smith is something I have tried to shut out as a phase in my life I want to forget.

“I was a serving Army Officer for 33 years and, following my retirement, my wife and I had a few enjoyable years before she was taken ill. Having achieved and coped with so much in my life I feel ashamed that Fred Smith was able to undermine all this.”