An ex-car salesman could be facing jail after trying to con a vulnerable pensioner into signing his house over to him as part of a scam equity release deal.
Lewis McEwan, 42, tried to convince an OAP in Oxford to part with his home in order to fund repair work that was not necessary.
The elderly victim, who has not been named, was told that his £650,000 property in Wytham Street was ‘structurally unsound’ as part of the fraud.
He was then told that if he handed over the deeds to the house, for a cut price fee of £87,500, he would be able to have the repair work done and live in the property rent free for the rest of his life.
The scheme was only uncovered when police received a tip off from another pair of rogue traders – who were also targeting the same victim.
An investigation was launched by trading standards before the case ended up at Oxford Crown Court last week.
A jury heard that the vulnerable homeowner was initially contacted by an accomplice of McEwan, calling himself Geoffrey Simmons, who visited the victim at the house.
As reported by the Oxford Mail, he convinced the pensioner that the new block paving at the front of his home needed to be sealed and sprayed with weed killer.
The elderly man paid £3,000 in cash for the work, with Simmons encouraging him to lie to his bank as to why he was withdrawing the funds.
He then asked the victim for a further £3,500 to fix the drains and told him the detached house was ‘subsiding’.
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