Richard Templeton of Alicante in Spain has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and received a two-year jail sentence at Leicester Crown Court.
He tried to defraud an unnamed 86-year-old man out of £67,000 with a promise to release £4m ($5m, €4.7m) that the elderly man had previously lost to scammers.
The victim was contacted by Templeton, who operated under the fake alias of Richard Armstrong and claimed to work for a company called Bradley Consulting Group.
Templeton built a relationship with the victim and told him he was able to release the £4m he lost to scams when he invested in wealth management companies between 2016 and 2018.
He claimed that the lost sum was in a hedge fund in Hong Kong and that the victim would incur a penalty and late payment fee totalling £67,000 to recoup his original investment.
Arrest and plea
Luckily, the elderly man did not hand over any money and police officers were able to step in, the City of London Police said.
The police discovered that Templeton was living in Spain, but in December 2021, he travelled to the UK to visit family. So, on 30 December 2021, the police arrested him as he tried to board a flight back to Alicante.
During his police interview, Templeton denied all knowledge of the fraud and that he had been using aliases. He also claimed to have been set up.
He was then charged and remanded in custody after his arrest. Templeton originally pleaded not guilty, but then changed his plea three days before his trial was due to begin.
Targeting victims
Jamie Howden, detective constable of the City of London Police, said: “Templeton posed as someone else in a cold-hearted, feeble attempt to lure the victim into a serious financial loss, knowing he’d already been significantly defrauded, causing a life changing turn of events.
“The victim was targeted due to his age and financial circumstances and this case acts as a sad reminder to us all of the lengths people will go through to attempt to destroy the lives of others.
“I hope that the conviction in this case can offer some reassurance and some closure to the victim and raise awareness of this type of fraud to others.”
The targeting of investors who have already lost money seems to have become an increasingly used tactic by scammers. International Adviser previously reported that victims of the now defunct investment firm London Capital & Finance were contacted by scammers in at least three different occasions over two years claiming to be able to secure them compensation.
