Plenty of Fish conman jailed for defrauding women

A fraudster who cheated women he had asked to marry him out of tens of thousands of pounds has been jailed for 10 years.

Richard Robinson groomed the vulnerable women and convinced them to put their houses on the market.

The 67-year-old met one of his victims on the dating site Plenty of Fish.

Robinson had earlier admitted fraud offences and was found guilty in his absence at Hove Crown Court of witness intimidation and battery.

The fraudster, of Red Hill, Camerton, near Bath, conned the two women out of a figure of more than £210,000 between 2017 and 2018.

One of his victims described a "campaign of manipulation and deceit" that included Robinson marching her into a building society to transfer funds within hours of her attending a funeral.

The second victim was a mother of two he met on Plenty Of Fish, whom he conned into selling her home before leaving her without water and heating.

Robinson, also known as Gary Rogers, claimed he had not targeted the women and had genuinely cared for them.

He was jailed in 2013 for similar offences.

The court heard that a third woman had put her house on the market and was engaged to marry Robinson but police alerted her in time.

Judge Paul Tain said: "The two victims were manipulated and manoeuvred, deviously victimised by a confidence trickster whose primary purpose was to extract from them everything that he possibly could.

"It's clearly targeted, it's clearly romance fraud."

Judge Tain described the offending as "wicked criminality" and "abuse of trust of the worst sort".