A fraudster lied that his son had died of cancer in a bid to get false refunds from stores including WH Smith, Asda, Tesco and Morrisons. Serial fraudster Simon Porter's manipulative technique was to "play on the good nature" of people by making up stories to elicit the sympathy of shop staff.
The 47-year-old managed to succeed in two of his lies and had a history of 215 previous convictions with 134 of them fraud-related, Hull Crown Court heard. Porter, of Bachelor Street, Hull, admitted five offences of fraud between May 12 and 31, HullLive reports.
The court heard that Porter, who has a drug addiction, told "grotesque lies" in order to pull on the heartstrings of people so they would bend the rules. His ploy of claiming someone had died was his 'go-to method' of fraud.
