A disgraceful fraudster has been jailed after he conned a retired primary school teacher out of more than £300,000 during an elaborate, five-year scam. Daniel Cook forged documents and faked official letters and bank statements in order to swindle cash from the trusting victim, who he was in a sexual relationship with. The 32-year-old's huge web of lies started with him helping himself to money from the man's account, taking out a phone contract in his name and pretending he needed cash for a fictitious training course in London, a court heard.
However, when that deceit was uncovered by the victim and when he'd already been given cash to the tune of £30,000, Cook's scam didn't come to an end. Instead, he told his lover he would pay the money back but that he needed more funds to unlock cash, which was owed to him but being held by a court. To "prove" his claims, the crook forged letters from Nationwide Building Society, HM Courts and Tribunal Service, the Ministry of Justice and the Northumbria Probation Service, prosecutors said.
So elaborate was the con, that Cook even pretended he was in rent arrears and contacted the victim, a retired teacher, church warden and charity fundraiser, pretending to be his landlord. Newcastle Crown Court was told that, in desperation, the man took out loans and borrowed significant sums of money from trusting friends and family to "help" Cook. However, the man's world came crashing down when a concerned relative hired a private investigator .
