Inverness fraudster to pay back blind Sutherland woman he conned or risk going to jail
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A registered blind woman who was conned out of £9500 by an Inverness man is set to get all her money back or the fraudster is likely to face an 18-month jail sentence.
Daniel Kay, of Longman Caravan Park, Inverness appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentence which had been deferred for him to save up the £9500 he got to carry out maintenance and repair work on two Sutherland crofts.
The 33-year-old was supposed to have the money on Monday, after Sheriff Ian Cruickshank told him that he faced jail if there was no repayment. But when it was not available, the sheriff remanded him in custody overnight and his family were to source the cash.
When he re-appeared from the cells, Kay's lawyer, solicitor advocate Clare Russell, told the court that her client had £6250 and he would be able to get the balance within a few weeks.
She conceded: "It was abhorrent behaviour and there is no excuse for it. However, there have been no convictions since this offence."
She urged the sheriff not to jail Kay as his victim probably would lose out and a community payback order plus compensation would be a suitable disposal to enable him to repay the full amount.
Sheriff Cruickshank told Kay that if it was not for his solicitor's plea, he had an 18-month prison sentence in mind.
Instead, he imposed an immediate compensation order for £6250, placed Kay on two years of social work supervision with 300 hours unpaid work. Sheriff Cruickshank also told him he must repay the remaining £3250 during the term of the order as an alternative to custody.
However, he set a review for September 18 "to ensure matters are progressing".
Kay had previously admitted carrying out the fraudulent scheme on the then 64-year-old Sutherland woman after being originally charged with inducing her to pay him £27,100.
But Kay pleaded guilty to obtaining the reduced amount which occurred between October 9, 2017 and January 4, 2018. The charge also intimated he had given receipts using false names.
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court that the crofts involved were located in the Lairg area and required ground and building work.
She said that in early October 2018, Kay was in the area looking for scrap metal and collected some from the crofts.
"He offered to do some work on the crofts and offered to move a caravan around to another plot, get new windows, a door, new drains, electrics and other improvement jobs," Mrs Gair said.
"A digger arrived and a small amount of work was done. Kay also told the woman he could put a log cabin on the property for her and do chippings.
"Little work was carried out and excuses for the delay were given about people being ill and deaths occurring. She paid him £9500 and she was given receipts in the names of Daniel Smith and Angus Reid.
"After a period of time, the matter was reported to the police."
Sheriff Cruickshank was critical of Kay who had made no effort to repay the money since the offence.
He told him: "You never had any intention of carrying out this work. You issued invoices in a false name and provided lame excuses for not doing it. You took unscrupulous advantage of a vulnerable blind individual and you benefited financially."
And the sheriff issued a warning to anyone with similar ideas, adding: "I will take a dim view of any such criminal enterprise to discourage anyone else from doing this."
