A young Perth man who attempted to scam vulnerable pensioners out of hundreds of pounds has been told that he is one mis-step away from custody.
Martin McPhee’s first victim was a frail 93-year-old woman, whom Perth Sheriff Court heard suffered from short-term memory loss and was easily confused.
McPhee (20) induced her to pay £70 for “gardening work”.
Flushed with his success, McPhee returned to the house the following day and asked for further payment, but received no money after the pensioner first sought advice from her family.
The following month he shifted his target to a second pensioner this time an 85-year-old woman who also suffers from problems with her memory.
Neighbours saw the accused spend about 30 minutes chopping branches from a tree before approaching the house.
He claimed the pruning would cost £50 but later returned to ask for a further £350, offering to drive his victim to a bank so that she could withdraw money.
Thankfully, a teller at the Bank of Scotland branch on Scone’s Perth Road became concerned when the pensioner confided that McPhee had told her to withdraw the money to pay for his gardening work and was waiting in a van.
The teller persuaded her not to withdraw the money and went with her to confront the accused.
He claimed that he had pruned and weeded the woman’s garden and laid concrete, before driving away.
McPhee, of Newhouse Road, gave guilty pleas to three charges, the first that on December 12 last year, at Kincardine Road in Auchterarder, he told a pensioner that he had carried out gardening work and conned her out of £70.
He admitted that on the following day he used the same ruse to try and obtain even more money from the woman.
And he further admitted that on January 21 this year, at the Bank of Scotland branch, he pretended to another pensioner that he had carried out gardening work and attempted to force her to withdraw money from an ATM and give him £350.
Sheriff Michael Fletcher told McPhee a first offender he had escaped a custodial sentence by the skin of his teeth, although it is still an option. He deferred sentence until June 12 after placing the accused on the Right Track programme.
The sheriff said: “These were undoubtedly very serious offences. You targeted elderly and very vulnerable people who you no doubt were aware would not know whether they should hand over money or not.”