Sex offender changed name before defrauding people

A fraudster who posed as a millionaire businessman and duped a neighbour out of £18,000 left her feeling in "real danger" after it was discovered he had changed his name following convictions for sex offences.

Shana was one of three victims targeted between 2020 and 2022 by 61-year-old Aidan Sinclair, from Greenhithe in Kent.

He was jailed for three years and two months in October after pleading guilty to multiple fraud offences.

After BBC South East discovered he had previous convictions as a sexual offender under the name Gary Cawthorne, one of his victims said criminals like Sinclair could "reinvent themselves" after changing their names.

Sinclair had forged bank statements, contracts and other documents to win the trust of the people he targeted over a three-year period.

When Shana told Sinclair she was planning to buy her own property, he told her he was in the process of buying a multi-million-pound property and could help secure a mortgage.

She said: "I insisted on seeing his ID, he brought his bills with him, his passport, his driving licence.

"I do ID checks as part of my job and I know what I am looking out for, it all looked legit.

"I Googled him and nothing came up, so I thought 'ok, that all checks out'."

Sinclair invented a string of reasons why he required money and went on to defraud Shana out of £18,000. Some of this was later reimbursed by her banks.

She said: "On the one hand I'm thinking how stupid for falling for this, but then on the other hand I'm thinking yeah but you did as much as you can, you were reassured that he's a legitimate person."

What Sinclair's victims did not know was that he had a string of convictions under his previous name, Gary Cawthorne.

In 2013 Cawthorne was convicted of a sexual assault on a teenage girl.

In 2016 he was jailed for more than four years for grooming then sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

Placed on the sex offenders register, he was later jailed again for failure to comply with his restrictions on a number of occasions between 2014 and 2020.

BBC South East also discovered that Sinclair had previously been a Metropolitan Police officer.

Those changing their name by deed poll can get a new passport and driving licence in their new name.

Registered sex offenders, violent offenders or terrorist offenders are legally required to inform police within three days.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) says any offender on licence must inform their supervising probation practitioner if they use any alternative names, and that includes if they change their legal name by deed poll.

An MoJ spokesperson said should they fail to notify the probation service, then they will be in breach of their licence and will face recall to custody.

Stuart Nolan, chair of the Law Society's Criminal Law Committee said: "It's a very common process done by people with bad intent, as well as those with good intent."

Det Con James Burr from Kent Police said Cawthorne/Sinclair had been "very convincing" in the way he committed his crimes.

"When the victims looked up Aidan Sinclair online, they didn't find any history of his offending and unfortunately those victims therefore fell for his scam."

Shana says she wants those who are serving part of their sentence on licence to be forbidden from changing their names.

"This is a safeguarding issue. We have dangerous people who can reinvent themselves and wipe the slate clean, and that's exactly what Sinclair did.

"It just made me feel that I could have been in real danger based on what I now know he is capable of."

Campaigners say some sex offenders fail to notify police if they are changing their names and are passing DBS checks by not disclosing their previous names.

Labour MP Sarah Champion wants to ban sex offenders from using different names to avoid detection.

She says currently the onus is on the offender to notify the authorities if they change their name.

A spokesperson for the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) said: "Where a DBS check applicant has changed their name/s (for any reason other than changing their gender) they are required to state all names they have previously been known by on the application form.

"Failure to disclose previous names, and deliberately avoid detection of previous convictions, would lead an individual to be liable for prosecution."

They said that the DBS works with police and government agencies, including the passport office.

"Through data sharing, use of industry standard algorithms, and improving identity verification techniques, DBS uses all available measures to make our checks as secure and accurate as possible."

A Home Office spokesperson said the government will be introducing legislation to restrict sex offenders' name changes.

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