Fraudster back behind bars after duping Bolton pensioner

John Ward deliberately targeted his 73-year-old victim and persuaded him to hand over £50 to clean gutters – work which was never done.

The 27-year-old had only been released from prison two weeks earlier after conning another victim in the same way.

Jailing him for his latest offences, Recorder Alexandra Simmonds told him: “I take the view that people who target the most vulnerable of society in the way that you have, particularly having particularly having received a custodial sentence for exactly the same thing, deserve a significant, immediate custodial sentence.”

Peter Gilmour, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court how the pensioner first encountered Ward on March 5 last year when he called at his Johnson Fold home and told him his guttering needed clearing as it was causing problems for a neighbour.

The frail pensioner uses a zimmer frame, is helped by carers visiting his home several times a day and the key safe and grab-rail outside the property would have made it obvious to Ward that someone vulnerable lived there, said Mr Gilmour.

Recorder Simmonds heard how the elderly victim handed over cash for the job to be done.

But work was never started and three days later Ward returned asking for £30 as he claimed he had also cleared the rear gutters.

The victim, realising he had previously been duped, refused and told him to come back the next day, hoping that a neighbour would also be there and they could catch Ward.

The fraudster did not turn up but then returned a third time on April 2 and asked for the money he had been "promised" but when his victim said he did not have it he threatened to take him to court.

John Ward outside court

Ward walked off, but the victim's neighbour managed to take photographs of him and he was later found by police living at a hostel on Chorley Old Road, where he had gone after being released from prison the previous month.

The court heard how Ward, who has 55 previous convictions, had only been released from prison on February 15 after being jailed for 25 months for conning other elderly victims in Manchester using the same lie.

Ward, of Kirksham Lane, Longsight, initially pleaded not guilty to three counts of fraud but changed his plea to guilty on the day of his trial.

Henry Blackshaw, defending, described Ward’s crimes as “mean” but added that he is remorseful and stressed that the father-of-three has not offended since.

He said that at the time Ward committed the offences he was drinking heavily as a way of dealing with the sudden death of his sister and he was, “no doubt, adapting to being at liberty after what had been a significant term of imprisonment".

He added: “Very stupidly and unfortunately for the gentleman who was his victim, he reverted to precisely the same behaviour which had put him in prison.

“He has been working at sorting his life out, mindful of his family responsibilities to his wife and children and mindful that he does not wish to be causing pain and misery to others by way of his offending.”

But Recorder Simmonds was scathing of Ward’s behaviour, pointing out that he had been persistent in conning a man who he obviously knew was vulnerable.