A heartless con artist who swindled an elderly couple out of £25,000 in a brazen banking scam has been sentenced to 18 months behind bars. Paul McEnhill, 28, deceived Thomas Docherty, 73, and Margaret Baillie, 82, into transferring thousands of pounds.
The scam began when Docherty received a phone call from a man claiming to be the head of Virgin Money’s CID department, stating that £5,000 had been stolen from his account. To retrieve the stolen funds, Docherty was instructed to make a transaction to help Virgin Money identify the rogue employee responsible for the theft.
The caller then directed Docherty to visit a bank branch and transfer £4,900, claiming the money was for his granddaughter. Furthermore, Docherty was informed that his wife’s account had been compromised and was ordered to transfer an additional £9,500.
Bank staff became suspicious of the large transactions and alerted the police in October 2022. McEnhill, from Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire, appeared in Hamilton Sheriff Court and pleaded guilty to the fraud, which resulted in him obtaining a total of £24,140 from his victims, reports the Daily Record.
Sheriff John Speir deemed imprisonment as the only suitable option, condemning the ‘callous and calculated’ scheme. Depute fiscal Carla McGuire described McEnhill’s persistent fraudulent activities, stating: “He told Docherty that Baillie’s account had had a further £5,000 taken from it and told Docherty he would need to access his internet banking to pay back the funds and gave Docherty a pin to access the banking which worked.”
“He also asked Docherty for his 16-digit card number and told Docherty that Baillie would have to go to the bank again but he was reluctant due to her poor health but the caller was insistent that she would lose her money otherwise.”
“They returned to the Rutherglen branch of Virgin Money with the caller remaining on the phone whilst they conducted the transaction.”
“Docherty was recognised by a staff member and the transfer was refused on the basis that they were making such large transactions in short succession and the branch manager was made aware and phoned 999.”
Police successfully tracked down McEnhill after it emerged he used his own bank details for one of the transfers.
The court heard £9,500 has been returned to Docherty. Eamonn McGeehan, defending, said: “He had a massive drug debt and was invited to become involved in this scheme as a way to clear the outstanding debt.”
“He did not appreciate the nature of the scheme and is embarrassed and remorseful but recognises this is a serious matter and that the custodial threshold has been met.”
Sheriff Speir said: “You engaged in a callous and calculated scheme to deprive elderly victims out of their savings, so much so that the consequences for them were the impact on their mental health and their financial situation.”
Virgin Money declined to comment.
