Penrith fraudster took 93-year-old's savings for work he never did

Ground works specialist Lee Morgan, 33, who was previously prosecuted for fabricating a story about his wife attempting to kill herself to avoid being evicted, first conned a 93-year-old woman out of her £1,400 savings.

Then, a few weeks later, he committed a similar offence against the first victim's 74-year-old neighbour, Carlisle's Rickergate Magistrates’ Court heard.

Morgan, of Victoria Road, Penrith, pleaded guilty to two frauds by false representation. At an earlier hearing, he also admitted disqualified driving. Prosecutor George Shelley outlined the offending.

He committed the first fraud on October 16 last year after the 93-year-old Penrith woman asked him to complete improvement work at her address, for which he quoted a price of £2,000.

“He asked her for £1,400 up front,” said Mr Shelley.

He told the pensioner that he needed the down payment to pay for the necessary materials, but he never did the work he promised to do. Morgan also accepted a down payment of £190 a month later from the woman’s neighbour.

But once again, he claimed he needed the cash to pay for materials and then never did the work. He also provided the woman with fake bank statements in a doomed attempt to make her believe he had repaid her.

In a statement, the 93-year-old said: “I don’t have much money. The money I spent I had saved this for a few years.” She said what happened had left her feeling "nervous" about people coming to her home.

She now relied upon somebody else to arrange getting such work carried out. The court heard that the defendant’s criminal record includes a Communications Act offence, committed in a crude attempt to prevent being evicted.

Morgan sent officials an email falsely claiming his partner had tried to kill herself and was in hospital “unresponsive and on breathing support.”

When staff from Castles and Coasts Housing Association, who were the defendant's landlord, checked they discovered that he had invented the whole thing - including the name of the doctor allegedly treating his wife.

She was actually at her home, physically well and unaware of any suicide attempt.

Steven Marsh, defending, said Morgan lived with his wife and two children and as a night shift worker she depended on him being there to mind them when she was away at her job.

The defendant had committed the disqualified driving offence unwittingly, not having realised he had been banned during a hearing he had failed to attend.

Referring to the first fraud, Mr Marsh said; “A friend had suggested he could do the work and he requested the money to pay for the materials and then other matters intervened with regard to a debt.”

One of the bills he had to settle was a £2,000 Council Tax debt, though he had also referred to paying for Christmas presents.

With the second fraud, said Mr Marsh, Morgan did buy some materials and completed four or five-days’ work, taking up paving slabs but the replacements were not delivered.

District Judge John Temperley said the defendant had taken advantage of his victims. Of the 93-year-old, the Judge said: “She’d saved up for years to have this work done so that money was of considerable importance to her – more so that to someone of greater means.”

The District Judge noted the defendant’s previous dishonesty and two employee theft offences on Morgan’s record.

He jailed Morgan for 32 weeks for the frauds and ordered that he pay compensation of £1,400 to the 93-year-old and £190 to the second victim. The defendant was also given a six-month driving ban, which will begin from the point when he is released on licence.

Read more: Langwathby man told housing chiefs his wife tried to kill herself