0:00:02 > 0:00:04Millions of us are targeted in scams every year.
0:00:04 > 0:00:09And whether it comes in the form of an e-mail, a cold call or a knock at the door,
0:00:09 > 0:00:12they're all designed to do one thing and one thing only -
0:00:12 > 0:00:14to get you to part with your cash.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35Coming up... a scam that deprived an elderly man
0:00:35 > 0:00:38of his home and his business.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40I was disgusted at what he'd done to me.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45And the rogue landlord whose money grabbing exploits left
0:00:45 > 0:00:47scores of innocent people in financial ruin.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51I just felt like going up Beachy Head
0:00:51 > 0:00:53and jumping off it, to be honest.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56Well, I'm here to tell you what the conman doesn't want you to know,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59how to stay one step ahead of the game and not get scammed.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07It may be a bit corny, but it's true.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11To be truly rich you need more than money and a big house,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14you need friends and family, people that are close to you.
0:01:14 > 0:01:19And the cruellest scams are the ones that take advantage of that fact.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23These scams are breathtakingly callous.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27Known as inveigling, they involve worming your way into someone's
0:01:27 > 0:01:31life and affections with the sole aim of getting at their cash.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33And they often prey on elderly,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37lonely people who don't have family and friends around them.
0:01:37 > 0:01:43The victims give themselves so wholeheartedly towards the scammer
0:01:43 > 0:01:47and that trust is broken, then I would suggest they'll find it
0:01:47 > 0:01:49very hard to trust anybody ever again.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52I'm about to meet a man who was taken for everything
0:01:52 > 0:01:57he had by someone he considered more than a close friend, almost family.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03Albert is a 77-year-old pensioner who lives in Derby.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07He was approached by a scammer in 2006 and the events that
0:02:07 > 0:02:11followed had a truly devastating effect on his life and his finances.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Hello there. You must be Albert.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16Nice to meet you.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18- Shall I come on in? - I THINK I can let you in!
0:02:18 > 0:02:21- THEY LAUGH - Thank you very much.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25Albert has lived on his own for the past 18 years,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28but it's not the old age he'd envisaged.
0:02:28 > 0:02:29Having been married with children,
0:02:29 > 0:02:34Albert divorced in the early '70s and moved to Derby to start afresh.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37He met his second partner and moved in with her,
0:02:37 > 0:02:39but a decade later tragedy struck.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44How long did that last?
0:02:44 > 0:02:49It lasted until...1984...
0:02:49 > 0:02:55and then she developed breast cancer and died.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01Having suffered two lots of heartache,
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Albert threw himself into his work running a pet shop.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09Yet he knew that at some point he'd have to retire
0:03:09 > 0:03:11and he was facing a lonely future.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15Then something happened that seemed to offer a way of avoiding this.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19It began when a young man called Jamie called into Albert's shop.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Tell me about the day that Jamie walked through the door.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31He's looking for someone who sells wild bird seed.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33I said yes I've got some...
0:03:33 > 0:03:37We got chatting, he was a friendly lad... he had a bookshop,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40he was educated at Repton College.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42Did he tell you all this the first time you met him?
0:03:42 > 0:03:44Yes, yeah, he was quite friendly.
0:03:44 > 0:03:51A scam like this begins by the offender gaining
0:03:51 > 0:03:53the trust of the victim.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58He's able to be very flexible in the lies and the stories that he tells.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00Jamie also told Albert that his parents had been
0:04:00 > 0:04:04killed in a tragic helicopter crash and that he himself suffered
0:04:04 > 0:04:08from a kidney complaint that required daily dialysis treatment.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11Did you think it was strange that someone would
0:04:11 > 0:04:16share so much with you so readily on a first meeting?
0:04:16 > 0:04:18To a certain extent yes,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22but then again I thought he was just trying to be friendly.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24Having apparently bared his heart
0:04:24 > 0:04:26and soul to Albert, Jamie then turned the tables
0:04:26 > 0:04:29and tried to find out as much as he could about Albert.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Conmen look to get as much personal information as they can
0:04:35 > 0:04:37about their victims. They'll be keen to know
0:04:37 > 0:04:43what their interests are, where they live, what their habits are...
0:04:43 > 0:04:47The information that the scammer gets about the victim will
0:04:47 > 0:04:51assist him in making up lies, making up cover stories as to how
0:04:51 > 0:04:55he's going to extract money and property.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57Jamie quickly discovered that Albert had a house nearby
0:04:57 > 0:05:01and that he lived alone and didn't have any family.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05He then began the process of worming his way into Albert's life.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07He said, "How do you get to work?"
0:05:07 > 0:05:11And I said, "I walk up in the morning and walk back at night."
0:05:11 > 0:05:15And he said, "If I'm in the village at all I'll give you a call
0:05:15 > 0:05:20"and take you one way or the other," which he did.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24And when he couldn't pick him up, Jamie even laid on taxis,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27which he paid for, to take Albert to or from work.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Did you ever ask yourself why is he doing this?
0:05:32 > 0:05:37No, I just thought it was his personality to be like that.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41I thought he was a decent lad.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44But in fact he was anything but decent.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46Unbeknown to Albert, he was actually a con artist called
0:05:46 > 0:05:50Sean O'Farrell, who had sensed Albert's loneliness and deliberately
0:05:50 > 0:05:54stepped into the void that Albert's family had left behind.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56But for now Albert knew him as Jamie.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59And he was ready for the next stage of the scam.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Once they've gone through the grooming process,
0:06:02 > 0:06:08the scammer's next move would be to test the water in terms of
0:06:08 > 0:06:14whether the victim is prepared to hand over money or property.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17And Jamie had an interesting way of going about this.
0:06:17 > 0:06:23He asked me if I'd be interested in moving over to Nottingham to live with him.
0:06:23 > 0:06:29A lot of people would say, hold on, that's maybe a step too far.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32You know, friendship is one thing, but this is something else.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35Yeah, it's possible, it's possible.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37How did you make sense of it in your own mind?
0:06:39 > 0:06:43I thought it was a decent thing to do.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46Deliberately exploiting Albert's fear of loneliness,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49Jamie told him he'd found a house to buy where they could go
0:06:49 > 0:06:51and live as friends and housemates.
0:06:51 > 0:06:52Attracted by the idea of friendship
0:06:52 > 0:06:57and having someone to look after him in his old age, Albert said yes.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01And it was then that Jamie made his first mention of money.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05He said he needed £70,000 towards the purchase of the house.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07And guess who he asked to stump up the cash?
0:07:09 > 0:07:12I said I would get it out the bank for him.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15- So you got out the full 70,000. - Yeah.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20After years of living alone with no close family around him,
0:07:20 > 0:07:24Albert now believed he was about to start a new life with someone
0:07:24 > 0:07:27he had begun to view almost as a surrogate son.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30And now that Jamie had promised him a rosy future together,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33he began the process of extracting more money from him.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37Once the victim believes there's going to be
0:07:37 > 0:07:40a long-term future in their relationship with the scammer
0:07:40 > 0:07:45then it would make their position a lot more relaxed
0:07:45 > 0:07:50and comfortable, it would make the scammer a lot more able to
0:07:50 > 0:07:53take money and possessions away from the victim.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57Jamie encouraged Albert to put his own house on the market.
0:07:57 > 0:07:58I owned my own house,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01so there was nothing stopping me from selling that.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04He also encouraged him to sell his pet shop.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08I'd done 18, 20 years at the shop,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11so there was no reason to hang onto that.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15And he found a flat for Albert to live in, which he said he would pay
0:08:15 > 0:08:19for, while they were waiting for the house in Nottingham to be done up.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22The scammer will deal with all the arrangements.
0:08:22 > 0:08:28In that way he will appear to be a lot more reassuring
0:08:28 > 0:08:31and in control from the victim's point of view.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33When the sale of Albert's house went through,
0:08:33 > 0:08:37Jamie even laid on transport to help him move.
0:08:37 > 0:08:43He took all the furniture in three loads using his own transit van.
0:08:43 > 0:08:50He was going to take it over to put in storage before we moved
0:08:50 > 0:08:55into the house at Mapperley which wasn't quite ready.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58Albert had now sold his house and his business,
0:08:58 > 0:09:02so he had over £300,000 in the bank,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05but Jamie now needed to find a way to get his hands on it.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08And here he played on Albert's own fears.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Albert had been told by his bank that any money
0:09:11 > 0:09:15he had in his account over £85,000 would not be insured
0:09:15 > 0:09:18if the bank ran into financial difficulties,
0:09:18 > 0:09:23so he should take some of it out and spread it across other accounts.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25But Jamie told him he had a better plan.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28He could store the money in a safe in his house.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31The safe was underground,
0:09:31 > 0:09:36he said it was safe enough in that area,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39they didn't have robberies up there.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42But the building society where Albert kept his money would
0:09:42 > 0:09:46only allow him to withdraw £5,000 a day.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49So every day over a period of several months
0:09:49 > 0:09:51Albert withdrew £5,000.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53And every day Jamie turned up to collect it.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00- The trust that you're placing in him there is phenomenal.- Yeah.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06So well will this victim have been groomed that he will be
0:10:06 > 0:10:12absolutely convinced that the money that he's giving over is not
0:10:12 > 0:10:16only for the right reasons but they will trust the scammer implicitly.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18Jamie carried on taking the money
0:10:18 > 0:10:20until he had emptied Albert's account,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22all the while reassuring him
0:10:22 > 0:10:26with tales of the wonderful future that lay in store for them.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30And even when the account was empty, he wasn't done. He still asked for more.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35At this point Albert finally smelt a rat.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38There was no reason for him to want any more money,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41he was sitting on that large amount of mine.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44So Albert refused to hand over any more money.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48And what happened next was predictable, but still heartbreaking.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50He just simply disappeared.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57Jamie had scarpered with nearly £400,000 of Albert's life savings,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00leaving Albert in a rented flat with no money
0:11:00 > 0:11:02and a very uncertain future.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06What went through your mind when you'd worked it out?
0:11:06 > 0:11:11Well, I was disgusted at what he'd done to me.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13Albert called the police,
0:11:13 > 0:11:15who conducted a search for Jamie Milliman.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18They were unable to find anyone under that name.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22It seemed as though the fraudster had vanished into thin air.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28Resigned to the fact that Jamie might never be brought to justice,
0:11:28 > 0:11:30Albert tried to get on with his life.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34But then, almost two years after the scammer had disappeared,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37he made a startling discovery in the local newspaper.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43As you opened that newspaper can you tell me what it said inside?
0:11:43 > 0:11:51It gave a photograph of him, saying that he'd conned these people.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56Sean O'Farrell had been up to his old tricks again,
0:11:56 > 0:11:58but this time he'd been caught.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01And of course the police had been unable to find him first time round
0:12:01 > 0:12:05because he'd been going under the fake name of Jamie Milliman.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11Albert got straight on the phone to the investigating officer who
0:12:11 > 0:12:15was named in the article, Detective Constable Steve Fuller.
0:12:15 > 0:12:21At the time that Albert reported the offence to the police, O'Farrell was already serving a sentence.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24He was in prison serving six years eight months for almost
0:12:24 > 0:12:26identical crimes.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28DC Fuller took a statement from Albert
0:12:28 > 0:12:32and confirmed that the Jamie Milliman who had fleeced Albert
0:12:32 > 0:12:35for every penny he was worth was indeed Sean O'Farrell,
0:12:35 > 0:12:40the conman who had scammed four other victims out of their life savings.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43But in prison, there was nowhere left to hide.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47O'Farrell was charged with four offences -
0:12:47 > 0:12:50he was charged with stealing the money,
0:12:50 > 0:12:51almost £400,000,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54stealing all the personal possessions from Albert's home,
0:12:54 > 0:12:58stealing the possessions from his business and he was also charged
0:12:58 > 0:13:04in connection with the rented property that O'Farrell moved Albert into.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08Sean O'Farrell was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison,
0:13:08 > 0:13:12to be served concurrently with his other sentence.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15It's small comfort though for Albert, who has lost his house,
0:13:15 > 0:13:19his business, his life savings and is now living on benefits.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27I hope you're not blaming yourself hugely for what's happened.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32No. I just blame myself for being a fool for going on as long as I did do.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39But you were on your own for such a long time without the family that
0:13:39 > 0:13:43you'd expected to have into your old age.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49In a sense it feels like he stepped in to fill that gap.
0:13:50 > 0:13:51Yeah, that's true.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55Would it be fair to say he's like a son?
0:13:55 > 0:13:58- Would that be fair?- Yep. Yep.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03I'm really sorry that it's happened to you.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05That's all right, son, it's OK.
0:14:05 > 0:14:11I hope that people can see this, can watch this and they can see
0:14:11 > 0:14:13- how it can happen.- Yeah.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17And hopefully prevent it happening to somebody else...
0:14:17 > 0:14:18with another conman.
0:14:28 > 0:14:33If you or a friend or neighbour are concerned about these sort of scams
0:14:33 > 0:14:38you can find more information at bbc.co.uk/scammed
0:14:46 > 0:14:52With house prices high and mortgages hard to come by, more and more people are renting.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57And when you're renting, what you really need is a good, trustworthy landlord.
0:14:57 > 0:15:03Unfortunately not all landlords are trustworthy and some are downright dishonest,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07taking advantage of people's needs for a roof over their heads
0:15:07 > 0:15:10in order to con them out of large sums of money.
0:15:10 > 0:15:15He'd take the deposit and eight month's rent in advance with no intention of them staying there.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19Thousands of people fall victim to rogue landlords each year
0:15:19 > 0:15:23and the effects can be devastating.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27I just lost every penny I had.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29I just felt like going up Beachy Head
0:15:29 > 0:15:31and jumping off it to be honest.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36In September 2010 Eastbourne Police were alerted to a fraudster
0:15:36 > 0:15:38called Paul Ridden who seemed to have been
0:15:38 > 0:15:41involved in a series of property scams.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49Over a period of about a year, he managed to con or take money
0:15:49 > 0:15:57out of probably between 20 and 50 victims in excess of £50,000.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00DC Erika Owen was the officer charged with investigating the case,
0:16:00 > 0:16:05which came to her attention in a very strange manner.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09In September 2010, Paul Ridden handed himself into Eastbourne
0:16:09 > 0:16:14police station and said he wanted to confess to committing fraud.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18OK, that's a new one on me, a conman who hands himself in.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20Why would he have done that?
0:16:20 > 0:16:23I think because too many people were after him in Eastbourne,
0:16:23 > 0:16:26he said, "It's a small town and they'll soon catch up with me."
0:16:26 > 0:16:31He said, "I can't carry on any more, I need to come here and be put into prison."
0:16:33 > 0:16:35He may have handed himself in,
0:16:35 > 0:16:37but the police still needed to investigate
0:16:37 > 0:16:42and began building up a picture of what Ridden had been up to.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46Through questioning it emerged that he had started out
0:16:46 > 0:16:49as a bona fide lettings agent but had then got greedy.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53What he started doing was taking money from the tenants
0:16:53 > 0:16:56and then not giving it to the owners of the property,
0:16:56 > 0:17:01so he'd say, "The tenant hasn't paid, I'll make sure I get it off them and get it for you,"
0:17:01 > 0:17:03and constantly blame the tenant.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06But it was about to become clear that stealing rent money
0:17:06 > 0:17:08was just the tip of the iceberg.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11Ridden had given DC Owen a notebook with details of all his victims,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14and as she began contacting them,
0:17:14 > 0:17:16the full extent of his crimes began to emerge.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21One of the people DC Owen spoke to
0:17:21 > 0:17:24was Paul Ridden's own landlady, Dawn Templeton,
0:17:24 > 0:17:28who had become concerned when he hadn't paid his rent.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33I contacted him to be told that he was paying a cheque into my account
0:17:33 > 0:17:37and bear with him, cos he was having cash flow problems.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42That cheque actually bounced three times and when the bank
0:17:42 > 0:17:47sent it to me, it was actually in the name of a lady I've never heard of.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52Smelling a rat, Dawn went round to the property in Eastbourne in search of Paul Ridden.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55She was in for a nasty shock.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59My neighbours immediately next door said that there was a lady
0:17:59 > 0:18:03living in the house. So I decided to put a note through the door to say
0:18:03 > 0:18:08I am the owner of this property, can you please contact me immediately.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13That evening a lady contacted me and to my horror
0:18:13 > 0:18:18I found out that...he had sublet the property illegally to her.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20Another victim was Sally Elliot,
0:18:20 > 0:18:23who believed that Ridden was her landlord.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27I was just sitting there in a state of total shock.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32Sally had first come into contact with Ridden
0:18:32 > 0:18:35when she was looking for a room to rent.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38I needed to get out, because where I was living wasn't very nice,
0:18:38 > 0:18:43and a friend at work had rented a room off Paul. He gave me the number,
0:18:43 > 0:18:47I phoned him up, he took me round, showed me this beautiful flat.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51Ridden told Sally that the flat was his and that he was living there,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54but that he had a spare room he could rent to Sally.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56Sally agreed and moved in a few weeks later.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Initially everything seemed hunky dory.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03I'd finally got out of the horrible place I was living in.
0:19:03 > 0:19:09I was going somewhere clean, tidy and I thought brilliant,
0:19:09 > 0:19:12basically - things were looking up.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15And Paul seemed like the perfect flatmate.
0:19:15 > 0:19:21I just thought he was an all-round nice guy, someone who's going to probably become a friend.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24And Ridden did seem to have Sally's interests at heart.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28She had spoken to him about her dream of one day owning her own property,
0:19:28 > 0:19:32and he came to her soon after she moved in with a proposition.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35He told her he had access to a whole load of repossessed properties
0:19:35 > 0:19:38and that he could get one for her on the cheap.
0:19:38 > 0:19:40He said, "If you want to move quickly
0:19:40 > 0:19:45"I can set up the mortgage, pay a deposit, pay for a valuation
0:19:45 > 0:19:50"on the property as well, then you can be there straight away."
0:19:50 > 0:19:56He also suggested she buy a second property which she could rent out and eventually sell.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59Sally asked to see the properties that she'd be buying,
0:19:59 > 0:20:01so Paul took her to see a two-bedroom flat.
0:20:01 > 0:20:06It just needed a bit of tidying up, but a complete kitchen,
0:20:06 > 0:20:11parking outside and I just thought it was a lovely flat.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15Unbeknown to Sally, Paul Ridden had no connection with this flat.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20He had simply befriended the estate agent in order to get hold of the keys.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25He was able to gain their trust by saying, "I need to go and look round a property for a potential client,
0:20:25 > 0:20:29"you just give me the keys, don't worry about coming with me, you stay in the office."
0:20:29 > 0:20:32And he'd built up that much of a rapport that they trusted him
0:20:32 > 0:20:33with the keys.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37But Sally was of course oblivious to this, and having seen one of
0:20:37 > 0:20:39the flats and been seduced by the idea
0:20:39 > 0:20:42of getting onto the property ladder,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46she agreed to hand over £4,000 to cover mortgage fees and surveys.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49I managed to raise the money by pumping up my credit cards to the
0:20:49 > 0:20:54limit and then eventually selling my pride and joy, my motorbike.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59Sally believed she was now well on her way to owning her own property.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03And Paul Ridden was the man who'd made it all possible.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07I basically thought he was my best friend who was helping me out,
0:21:07 > 0:21:09getting me on the property market.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14She had no idea that the man she considered to be her best friend
0:21:14 > 0:21:15was in fact a conman.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19But when Sally spoke to DC Owen, she was told the shocking news
0:21:19 > 0:21:21that Paul Ridden had been arrested.
0:21:22 > 0:21:27And when Sally told her about the money she'd handed over for mortgages and surveys,
0:21:27 > 0:21:29she was told that she - like many others -
0:21:29 > 0:21:31had been the victim of a fraud.
0:21:33 > 0:21:39It took me quite a while to get over the shock and try and sort it out
0:21:39 > 0:21:43in my head. I'd just lost every penny I had.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48In total, Sally had handed over £6,000 to Paul Ridden
0:21:48 > 0:21:50and she was now seriously in debt.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54But DC Owen was determined to make Ridden pay for his actions.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57She had issued a press release in the local area to see if there were
0:21:57 > 0:22:02other people who'd had dealings with Ridden, and the response was huge.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08I used to come to work and I'd have lists and lists of e-mails - all
0:22:08 > 0:22:11saying "Paul Ridden owes me money," "Paul Ridden owes me money."
0:22:11 > 0:22:15And as more complaints came in, the police heard more techniques
0:22:15 > 0:22:18that Ridden had used to fleece his victims.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21He used his position of trust as a property rental agent
0:22:21 > 0:22:22to pose as a landlord,
0:22:22 > 0:22:26and he would show people around properties that weren't up for rent.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29They weren't up for rent because there were people
0:22:29 > 0:22:32already living in them. But this didn't stop Ridden.
0:22:32 > 0:22:37He'd show them round the property and then take their deposit
0:22:37 > 0:22:40and a month's rent in advance, give them a tenancy agreement
0:22:40 > 0:22:42and tell them that they could move in.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47Unbeknown to them they were never going to move in, and he had no intention of giving back their money.
0:22:47 > 0:22:53It seemed that no-one was immune to Ridden's scams.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56He's got no conscience whatsoever and he wouldn't mind
0:22:56 > 0:23:00if you were his girlfriend, his best friend, his lifelong friend,
0:23:00 > 0:23:02he would take money from them.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05After turning himself in, Ridden had been released on bail
0:23:05 > 0:23:09and he'd promptly checked himself into a psychiatric ward,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11claiming to be suffering from depression.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13Astonishingly,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16while he was there, he even tried to scam his fellow patients.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20He had befriended them and gone into their life and become invaluable.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24Particularly one of them... he helped her with everything,
0:23:24 > 0:23:25he drove her places,
0:23:25 > 0:23:29he went out of his way to get her trust. And just at the beginning of
0:23:29 > 0:23:33the year he had managed to persuade her to part with a lot of money.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35A lot of money is £35,000.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38The Ridden disappeared.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41He had been told to return to Eastbourne police station
0:23:41 > 0:23:44for charging in April 2011, but he never turned up.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49And the police were unable to track him down.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58DC Owen put out another press release to see if anybody knew of his whereabouts,
0:23:58 > 0:24:04and a couple of months later she got a call from a woman saying she'd seen him in Thailand.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07She said that she had met Paul Ridden and that everyone was talking
0:24:07 > 0:24:10about him because he was making promises that he wasn't keeping.
0:24:10 > 0:24:15She came back to England...and found out that he was wanted by myself
0:24:15 > 0:24:20and she called me directly and said, "I think I know where your man is."
0:24:20 > 0:24:23DC Owen immediately contacted the Thai police
0:24:23 > 0:24:27and arranged for Paul Ridden to be deported to England.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32He was then flown from Phuket to Bangkok, escorted by officers,
0:24:32 > 0:24:36and he was then put on a plane to Heathrow where I met him
0:24:36 > 0:24:38at the airport and arrested him.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Paul Ridden was finally behind bars,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45after a year-long investigation that had involved scores of victims
0:24:45 > 0:24:48and gone halfway across the world and back.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52Ridden was charged with fraud and theft and jailed for four years.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56This was a great result...and I think it was fit for what he did.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00There were many, many, many victims waiting for him to be caught
0:25:00 > 0:25:04and put behind bars and they got the sentence that they wanted.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14Well, before we go, there's just time to tell you about some of the latest scams out there.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20I've come to meet an expert from Trading Standards to get the lowdown
0:25:20 > 0:25:22on what you should be looking out for.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29Today we're looking at a scam that targets this great nation of pet lovers.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38When it comes to animals, people tend to react emotionally rather than rationally,
0:25:38 > 0:25:42- so I imagine there must be a scam out there for them.- Absolutely.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45There was one that we know that involves dogs or puppies
0:25:45 > 0:25:48from overseas, particularly pedigree puppies.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52What happens is that people in this country come across an advert on a website
0:25:52 > 0:25:55and understand they're in need of a good home.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And these are being offered for free, potentially.
0:25:58 > 0:26:04They're making an emotional plea that these dogs will effectively be maltreated or put down overseas,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06and you have a chance to save their life.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09What happens then when you get in contact?
0:26:09 > 0:26:12You'll have a dialogue with the owner of the dog,
0:26:12 > 0:26:16and he will send you a notification typically that the animal is on its way.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20And then what happens, you'll get an e-mail from someone claiming to be Customs,
0:26:20 > 0:26:24saying, "We've impounded your animal and it can follow its journey to you,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27"providing you just pay a small fee for the courier charge."
0:26:27 > 0:26:31So you're picturing a puppy in a cage in a warehouse somewhere.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33And you're its saviour.
0:26:33 > 0:26:34You're going to hand over the cash.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37That's exactly right. It's a classic case of the heart ruling the head.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39But you guessed it, there is no puppy,
0:26:39 > 0:26:43just a scammer preying on your good nature.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47If you do want a puppy, there are plenty of rescue centres
0:26:47 > 0:26:51around the country who have dogs just waiting for a good home.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56Fraudsters will forever be coming up with new ways to get you to part with your cash.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00But armed with a little bit of knowledge, you can be one step ahead of them.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03Stay safe. I'll see you next time.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd