Internet trap for criminals preying on elderly

Trading standards investigators in North Yorkshire employed the ingenious tactics to convict three offenders in the latest case in a worrying trend of fraudsters preying on pensioners with mental health illnesses.

Criminals offering to carry out work to homes have carefully selected their victims in the hope their failing memories will mean the offenders are able to evade detection.

But the three men who conned two pensioners out of thousands of pounds were sentenced to a total of four years yesterday following an investigation by North Yorkshire County Council’s trading standards team.

Michael Dolan, 19, and his father Edward, 48, both of Allen Grove in Stokesley, were convicted of defrauding an 84-year-old man from Marske by the Sea, near Redcar, of £17,500 between June 2009 and October 2011. Both were also convicted of money laundering in relation to multiple cheques taken from the victim.

Michael Dolan and William Jacob McElvaney, 19, of Ainthorpe Lane in Ainthorpe, Whitby, were also convicted of defrauding an 89-year-old woman suffering from dementia from Hutton Rudby, near Stokesley. The exact amount she was conned out of has never been established.

Images from the Google Earth and Streetview internet sites as well as estate agent’s property details, old pictures and a surveyor’s report were used to prove £17,500 of work had not been carried out at the man’s home.

Footage from closed-circuit television cameras which were installed at the other victim’s home after her son had become suspicious his mother was being targeted was used to convict Michael Dolan and McElvaney.

The council’s head of fraud and financial investigations, Ruth Andrews, said: “We will use every source available to us to collect evidence to bring these offenders to justice. These cases are a clear example of how families and neighbours can work together to help ensure criminals are caught.”

The investigation began in June 2012 when concerns were raised by the son of the victim in Hutton Rudby who had installed CCTV cameras at his mother’s home after she was targeted by rogue traders. Neighbours had also confronted two men entering the woman’s house and taken photographs which were also used to identify Michael Dolan and 
McElvaney.

During the inquiry, trading standards officers uncovered the frauds carried out on the victim in Marske by the Sea. The man’s son showed them payments totalling £17,500 which were recorded in his father’s cheque book stubs to “M Dolan” and “E Dolan”. While he knew the traders had been cutting his father’s grass for some time, he was unaware the five-figure sum had been charged. The victim has since died.

The Dolans insisted they carried out £17,500 of work and claimed they only ever went to the victim’s property when he contacted them. But itemised phone bills revealed he had called them once during the 28-month period of their offending against him.

At Teesside Crown Court yesterday, Michael Dolan was sentenced to two years in a Young Offenders’ Institute, William McElvaney was sentenced to nine months detention and Edward Dolan was given a 15-month jail term.

Afterwards, the son of the victim in Hutton Rudby said: “These people must have no conscience. They left our mother in a confused state as to why she had no money left in her purse. This has been very distressing for her and for all the family.”

The son of the Marske by the Sea victim added: “I am disgusted that unscrupulous people see fit to exploit vulnerable pensioners in this way by grossly over-charging for work that is either sub-standard or not completed at all.”

The council’s executive member for trading standards, Coun Chris Metcalfe, condemned the offenders for targeting “extremely vulnerable victims to feed their own greed”.

The Yorkshire Post revealed in March that a nationwide network of rogue traders is preying on dementia sufferers amid warnings the problem will grow as mental illness among the elderly soars.

Victims have paid up to £250,000 to offenders who have duped them out of vast sums of money for shoddy repairs to roofs and driveways and for gardening.

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