Conwoman blackmailed man with child abuse claims

A serial thief pretended to be a police officer and told a pensioner she would arrest him for molesting a child if he didn’t hand over his bank card and pin number.

Kathleen Perry, 57, tricked the man at his front door in September before driving off with her associate Emma Fuggle to a nearby cash machine.

She took out two lots of £250 and returned the card to the elderly man saying she would be back the next day.

But her victim realised what had happened and called his family to say he was robbed.

A month earlier, Ms Perry had targeted a vulnerable 69-year-old woman who lives alone in Maidstone, Kent.

She knocked on the door pretending to be from social services and told the woman that her neighbour, who had recently died, had ordered some bedding which needed paying for.

She said the dead woman’s family would reimburse her if she handed over her bank card and pin number.

The woman did so and Ms Perry and Ms Fuggle went to a nearby Sainsbury’s to withdraw one lot of £120 and one of £100. After receiving reports of the fraud, officers saw Ms Perry on CCTV withdrawing the cash and later found the clothes she had been wearing in her home in Maidstone. She was arrested and charged with theft and fraud and has been remanded in custody since.

She did not attend Maidstone Crown Court in person for her trial as she thought she was supposed to appear by video link.

District Judge Stephen Leake decided to continue the trial in her absence which heard from both victims.

The elderly man said: “I didn’t give permission to use the card. I thought

‘I didn’t give permission to use the card. I thought she was taking it to her sergeant to check’

she was taking it to her sergeant to check.”

Ms Perry gave a no-comment interview to officers but did name codefendant Ms Fuggle as her associate and blamed her for some of the offences.

She even suggested the elderly man had given her the cash in exchange for sexual favours.

Ms Perry was found guilty on four counts of theft and two counts of fraud by false representation. Ms Perry has at least 17 convictions for fraud by false representation and was previously jailed for six years.