Blind piano tuner scammed out of £185k by fraudster

A fraudster who scammed a blind man out of £185,000 has been jailed.

Mark Stanner, 42, of Macclesfield, Cheshire, used a call centre as a front to bombard his victim with phone calls, texts and emails falsely claiming he owed to companies over a four-year period, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.

The force said in one instance he had threatened to take the man's property if he did not pay £4,000 within the hour.

Stanner, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, was jailed for five years and four months at Manchester Crown Court Minshull Street.

Police said Stanner began his scam by sending messages to the victim, a man in his 50s, claiming he owed funds to publication companies for adverts to advertise his trade as a piano tuner.

The initial financial demands which date back to 2017 were small, the force said.

GMP said the victim paid the demands at first and requested Stanner leave him alone.

However, police said the demands got progressively more aggressive and frequent.

Because of the amounts of money Stanner was demanding, the victim had to borrow money from friends and family as he needed to purchase braille software to read a string of invoices Stanner had falsely created.

Police said in some instances Stanner gave the victim half an hour to pay his demands.

GMP said Stanner was gambling with his ill-gotten gains he had fleeced from his victim.

Stanner's sister Martina Turner put £31,000 of the victim’s money into her account to mask her brother's crimes, police said,

The 44-year-old of Nelson Drive, Droylsden, was given an 18-month suspended sentence and ordered by undertake 200 hours of unpaid work after admitting conspiracy to defraud.

Marvin Scott , 41, of Orwell Avenue, Manchester, was jailed for 31 months after he allowed £48,000 from the company to move through his bank accounts to conceal the finances for Stanner. He also pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Det Con Michelle Wilkinson said: "Stanner has shown no remorse throughout our investigation and has actively sought to conceal his finances by enlisting the help of Turner and Scott who kept money in their accounts for [him].

"Sadly, this case demonstrates how easy it is for people to fall victim to fraudsters, especially when they are convincing."

She added: "The victim was vulnerable, and Stanner took advantage of this. I hope he spends his time in jail thinking about the consequences of his actions."

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