A man has been arrested in a suspected case of fraud after an elderly man has appeared to have transferred £250,000 in to a bank account to pay for minor property repairs
Yesterday afternoon a bank in Middleton raised serious concerns about an elderly man who was attempting to transfer almost £100,000 to an alleged contractor.
Police attended the bank and spoke to the employees, and it became clear that this elderly man had periodically been transferring large sums of money to a man for building work on his house.
However, after a visit to the victim’s house, it’s believed that that over several months, he had paid over £250,000 for minor renovations, such as painting. Whilst they were at the property, the suspect showed up, and he was swiftly arrested on suspicion of fraud.
He remains in police custody for questioning.
Detective Superintendent Andy Buckthorpe from our Economic Crime Unit said: “It is truly alarming to see this level of exploitation of a vulnerable man.
“Thanks to the diligence of the bank and their knowledge that something wasn’t right, we were able to immediately respond and make a positive arrest, but also safeguard the victim to ensure he is now protected.
“The impact of fraud has real lasting impacts on victims and their families and cannot be underestimated.
“We are out doing all we can to protect our communities from fraud, it is a devastating crime that involves some of the most vulnerable members of our society getting defrauded out of thousands and even tens of thousands of pounds worth of their hard-earned money which is going straight into fraudster’s pockets.
“As soon as we are made aware of incidents like this, we’re able to use our specialist cyber capabilities to follow the money and establish the real word identities of these type of criminals and stop them from doing any more harm.”
