The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
An 89-year-old Spalding man, who was tricked out of £8,000 of life savings, has spoken out in the hope others won’t fall victim to fraudsters posing as police officers.
In an elaborate plot Roy Clark believed he was working undercover for the police in an investigation into bank workers when he withdrew the money.
The fraudsters even led the retired television engineer to believe that he had rang Lloyds Bank to confirm their story’s legitimacy.
Mr Clark has lived by himself for the past two years since the passing of his wife Molly.
He wanted to talk to the media so others wouldn’t fall for the scam.
“I’m still in shock,” he said. I’ve hardly felt able to eat as a result of this.”
Roy was contacted at around 11.45am on Thursday, August 9, by someone claiming to be “Sergeant Collins of Peterborough Police” who said that money had been moved around in his accounts.
The fraudsters said Mr Clark needed to withdraw the money for safe-keeping telling him that someone in the bank could be stealing.
They kept him on the phone for an hour and 36 minutes talking him through the operation, telling Mr Clark to tell those on the checkout at Lloyds that he was drawing the money out to buy a car.
Upon returning home he was instructed to put the money in a carrier bag cellotapped closed which a man collected at 3.30pm.
When two promised police officers failed to turn up an hour later, Mr Clark realised something was wrong.
A contact number the fraudsters had given him was fake and he alerted Spalding Police.
“I thought I was helping an investigation,” Mr Clark said. “I’ve no idea how they’ve got my details or why they targeted me.”
His granddaughter Amy Holmes posted his experiences on Facebook to warn others and it has been shared more than 220 times.
“I was very, very angry when I heard,” she said: “I don’t often take to Facebook but this is something that people need to be made aware of rather than fall victim to it.
“Me, my mum and my granddad are very close and usually tell each other everything, but they swore him to secrecy.
“He thought he was doing the right thing and helping them their investigations.”
Inspector Gareth Boxall, said: “This is the latest of a number of reports that we have had in Lincolnshire in the past few months targeting elderly and vulnerable members of the public.
“We are investigating this offence but sadly this victim has been deceived out of a considerable amount of money.
“My plea to anyone reading this is to pass the clear message that no police officer or law enforcement agency will ever ask members of the public to handover money.
“We have seen previous attempts made by those pretending to be from the National Crime Agency (NCA). NCA officers will not ask members of the public to do this either.
“If you are contacted by someone claiming to be a police officer or any other law enforcement officer (such as the National Crime Agency) who is asking you to buy goods or hand over cash, please call us on 101 and report to Action Fraud on 0300 1232040. If a crime is in progress please call 999.”
