A man who pretended to be his dead mother in order to cheat his grieving father out of his life savings has been jailed.
Daniel Cuthbert, 42, drained up to £56,000 from his father’s account over a 14-month period from 2017 to 2018, including a redundancy pay-out.
He also drew up loans in his father’s name which led to his dad losing his home as a result of the debts he knew nothing about.
Cuthbert posed as both his father, Joseph Cuthbert, and his late mother on a series of telephone banking calls, Preston Crown Court heard.
He put on a female voice on at least nine occasions leading to £9,000 being transferred into his account.
Audio footage released by the police revealed how Cuthbert impersonated his mother, duping the Lloyds Bank call handler into believing it was Mrs Cuthbert.
On one call, he is heard correctly answering a series of security questions before requesting a payment to be transferred as soon as possible.
Mr Cuthbert noticed suspicious activity on his account in 2017 and confronted his son – but was persuaded to believe he had done nothing wrong.
However, he was forced to face the truth after a building society informed him in 2018 he would lose his home due to arrears.
Cuthbert, from Stanion, Northamptonshire, admitted fraud by false representation and was jailed for two years. He is also subject to a five-year restraining order.
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‘Despicable abuse of trust’
The “complex” police investigation was led by Sergeant Mike Rogers, of Northamptonshire Police’s Volume Fraud team, who said: “This was a really despicable abuse of trust by this man who falsely represented his father and even his late mother, in order to defraud them out of more than £56,000.
“Cuthbert has been jailed and will now have plenty of time to reflect on his actions.
“We hope this brings some closure to the victim who was put through a horrendous ordeal by his son only months after losing his wife.”
A report by the Treasury Committee in 2021 found an “alarming” growth in fraud in the UK – as MPs warned scam adverts were duping victims out of “large sums of money”.
In November last year, some 70,000 people were warned to expect a text message telling them they have fallen prey to a £48m scam – with one victim losing £3m – in the UK’s biggest ever fraud sting.
