A conwoman pretended to be a police officer to threaten a pensioner with arrest for child molestation in order to force him into handing over his bank card and PIN number. After tricking the man, Kathleen Perry, 57, drove off with her associate, Emma Fuggle, to a nearby cash machine, where they took out two lots of £250. Perry then gave the card back to the elderly man, and told him she would return the next day.
While he quickly realised what had happened and called his family to tell them, Perry had already made off with the cash. The incident came after an earlier scheme by the conwoman in which she targeted a vulnerable 69-year-old woman who lived alone in Maidstone, Kent.
For this scam, Perry and Fuggle pretended to be from social services. She told the woman that her neighbour, who had recently died, had ordered some bedding which needed paying for, and asked for her card and PIN number.
Perry told the woman that the neighbour’s family would reimburse her after she had paid.
The pair then headed to a nearby Sainsbury’s to withdraw one lot of £120, and another of £100. Following reports of the fraud, officers caught the fraudster on CCTV as she withdrew the cash.
They were later able to find the same clothes she had been wearing in her home to corroborate this evidence. Kathleen was arrested, and charged with theft and fraud.
She has been remanded in custody since then. However, she refused to attend in person to her court hearing in Maidstone Crown Court, as she…
