Richard Wyn Lewis conned a pensioner and his partner out of more than £200,000 after he claimed it was for land sales and horses.
The fraudster who conned a pensioner out of £200,000 has been sentenced to six years in jail. Richard Wyn Lewis, 51, conned 74-year-old Gerald Corrigan and partner Marie Bailey out of more than £200,000 after he claimed it was for land sales and horses. In 2019, Mr Corrigan was fatally shot with a crossbow outside his home in a remote part of Anglesey, Wales.
The murder of Mr Corrigan is not connected to the case heard in Mold Crown Court against Lewis but the case came to light when Ms Bailey was interviewed in the aftermath.
Sentencing Lewis for five counts of fraud on Friday, Judge Rhys Rowlands said: “That murder tragically remains without a known motive.”
Describing Lewis as a “thoroughly dishonest man”, Judge Rowlands said: “You got away with it time and time again until matters came to light during the course of extensive police inquiries which followed Mr Corrigan’s murder.”
The court heard Mr Corrigan and Ms Bailey had handed over £220,000 to Lewis, 51, and in the days before his death Mr Corrigan told the fraudster: “There is no more money.”
Lewis, of Llanfair-yn-Neubwll, Holyhead, Wales had claimed there was a potential buyer for Mr Corrigan’s home and said he had enlisted the help of a retired planning officer to get permission for a development.
Reading a statement in court Ms Bailey said she had been “used and abused” by Lewis who “took all I had for his own personal gain”.
She added: “He offered the hand of friendship only to use it to lie and steal and take everything from me.”
Lewis had initially denied 11 counts of fraud and one count of perverting the course of justice but changed his pleas to admit four counts of fraud on Thursday, the third day of his trial.
He had admitted a further count of fraud, against restaurant owners Ali and Fatima Ahmed, at an earlier stage.
Sam Robison, defending ask the judge to consider Lewis has spent time on remand “pretty much in solitary confinement”.
He said: “There were threats against him and attacks on him as a result of the same issue.”
Sentencing Lewis to six years in prison Judge Rowlands said he is a “thoroughly dishonest man”.
-express
