White Abbey man stole £4,500 from vulnerable Bradford woman (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
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White Abbey man stole £4,500 from vulnerable Bradford woman
8:00am Saturday 16th February 2013 in News
A 26-year-old man who stole almost £4,500 from a woman with severe learning difficulties after befriending her on the internet has been jailed for a year.
Jamie Smith funded his online gambling addiction by draining his vulnerable victim’s bank account and then took out payday loans in her name, Bradford Crown Court heard.
Smith, of Gracechurch Street, White Abbey, Bradford, took out a mobile phone contract in name of the woman’s brother and then sold the phone for £100.
He left the Westleigh Hotel, on Easby Road, Bradford, without paying the bill after staying there for five days with the 22-year-old woman, who had been cared for at her home in the Leeds area by her mother.
Smith, who was in custody after failing to answer his bail, admitted theft and four charges of fraud.
The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, told Smith: “Over two to three months, you took dreadful advantage of this girl and her circumstances.”
