A "despicable" fraudster who was part of a “professional” theft outfit stole an elderly woman’s bank card and went on a £11,000 spending spree.
Romanian Aurica Matache asked the 80-year-old woman for directions when he stopped her in a supermarket car park in Wrexham .
When the woman was distracted trying to help him, he took her bank card and withdraw £1,000 within a couple of minutes.
He then went on to buy a number of expensive items from shops whose staff became suspicious and reported him to police.
Matache is believed to have been one of a gang of thieves travelling the country to carry out distraction thefts, and speaking through a translator he asked the judge at Mold Crown Court that eight other offences around the UK should be taken into consideration at his sentenceing.
The court heard he had a previous conviction for robbery back in Romania when he was a much younger man, and last November was fined for trying to steal a wallet from an old man outside a Coventry supermarket - a punishment that Mold Recorder Judge Rhys Rowlands said was “astonishing”.
“A more robust sentence might have prevented you from going on to target other individuals,” the judge said.
The elderly woman from whom Matache had stolen the money now found it difficult to trust people, felt that she was targeted because she was elderly and vulnerable and was now nervous when she was on her own.
The prosecutor said that victim had lost £11,600 and there was no information in the case papers whether the bank had repaid the money.
Sentencing Matache, 57, of Harrow Street in Wolverhampton to two years eight months for the January 4 theft, Judge Rowlands said it was “planned and professionally executed”, adding: “I make it plain that I view such behaviour, as I suspect do all right thinking people, as simply despicable.”
Defending barrister John Wyn Williams, said that the defendant had entered the UK in November of last year, could not find employment, had been asked by others to join a group or gang and fell to temptation.
He said he was very sorry and the fact that he had asked for other offences to be taken into consideration reflected his genuine remorse.
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/despicable-fraudster-steals-11000-wrexham-11205147
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