Frail Wallington pensioner stung in sewer pipe scam

Natalie Thompson, of Hayday Road, east London, has been jailed for 14 months after subjecting her victims to a barrage of demands for money for work that was never carried out - including drainage and sewage repairs.

One of her victims includes a frail former headmistress in her 80s from Wallington.

In October 2011 a man called at her home claiming he was the nephew of a neighbour.

He said he paid £74,000 in advance to repair a sewer pipe running underneath their gardens and she needed to pay her share.

She then received telephone calls pretending to be solicitors representing the owner of the property nearby.

They demanded payments of £15,000 for machinery and £10,000 because the drainage company had supposedly gone bust.

The fraud came to light only after the victim’s bank alerted Sutton Council’s Trading Standards that they were concerned and had frozen her account to prevent a further payment of £20,000.

The payments were made into Thompson’s bank account where she also received money from other victims around London – including a stroke victim whose wife had just died, a former Lancaster bomber rear gunner, and a disabled vicar who is the sole carer of his disabled wife.

Thompson was captured on CCTV making large withdrawals from cash points. She told police she had not worked in nine years and was receiving child benefit, tax credits and income support.

She said she was being threatened by a violent man who would burn her house down unless she gave him the money paid into her account.

At Croydon Crown Court on Friday, July 26, Thompson was sentenced after pleading guilty to seven counts of money laundering amounting to £47,000.

As part of Operation Schooner Sussex Police uncovered a large, organised criminal network of which Thompson was a part.

Police have charged an additional 12 people with fraud and money laundering in relation to these offences.

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