Prison abscondee used Match.com to prey on vulnerable women (From Warrington Guardian)

Prison abscondee used Match.com to prey on vulnerable women

9:47am Thursday 26th November 2009

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AN escaped convict fleeced nearly £40,000 from professional women he met on a dating website after telling them he was a successful businessman.

Con man Steven Truswell, of Cantilever Gardens, Station Road, Latchford, used different aliases on Match.com and told the five single women he owned a company which trained elite athletes, a business on Gemini Retail Park and properties in Barcelona and the Lake District.

But, unknown to his victims the 37-year-old was at large after escaping from Kirkham Prison in October 2007, where he was serving a four-year sentence for taking more than £700,000 from clients after selling fake Manchester United tickets and corporate boxes at Old Trafford.

Myles Wilson, prosecuting, told Warrington Crown Court on Friday how the defendant had told victim Louise Wolstonholme that he was falling in love with her and the pair spent Christmas together.

He said: “He gave her a detailed account of how they could go to Dubai to look at investment opportunities.

“She spent many thousands of pounds on the defendant thinking they were in a long lasting relationship.

He wrote out three blank cheques from her account for £8,616 but she cancelled them before they were cashed.

In a victim’s statement she said she was a ‘shadow of her former self’ and did not think she would recover from Truswell’s deceit.

Mr Wilson told how another victim Ann Hanson had separated from her husband when she fell for the convict’s web of lies.

He said: “She mentioned she had £10,000 saved for a deposit for a house. He told her could invest the money in a hedge fund.

“She gave him £1,000 then £10,000. He said he would return with interest of £8,000 or £9,000 within two weeks.

“After giving him the money she found it more difficult to contact him. He said his father was in hospital. She started investigating and realised she had been duped.”

Ms Hanson thinks the episode will ‘mentally scar’ her.

The court also heard how how his other victims were duped.

Erin Backstead was conned out of £3,500 after lending the defendant money, which she thought would pay for fees for his alleged daughter’s private school in Wilmslow. He wrote cheques to repay the money but they bounced.

Julie Webber, an entrepreneur, gave him £5,900, which she thought was going to be invested in an offshore account. He said he would take her to Wimbledon and buy her a new outfit.

And Vicky Stockney, who knew Truswell as James Dermott, was asked for money to pay for his daughter’s horse and told his wallet had been stolen and his account frozen. She thought he had used some of the money to buy flights for the Super Bowl in California. She lost £7,000 but was able to retrieve £5,000.

Truswell was arrested after being caught shoplifting and was sentenced to a further eight months in jail in March for absconding.

A total of £39,566 was taken from the women with an actual loss of £23,950 between March 2008 and January 2009.

Lee Ferris, defending, said Truswell described horrific circumstances including being kidnapped following his fraudulent ticket crimes.

“He worked successfully for some time within a legitimate business. That went wrong, he ended up bankrupt. He (originally) made money legitimately and became greedy.

“He does express remorse and apologises to the victims.”

He said prisoners at Kirkham believed he still had money and made threats against his mum.

Judge Thomas Teague QC said: “These were cruel and heartless offences to exploit women who were, to some extent, lonely.

“You knew what you were doing and that your victims were vulnerable.”

He jailed Truswell for 28 months for 14 counts of fraud and three counts of theft. This will run consecutively to the four-year sentence he received in 2007 and the punishment for absconding from prison.

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