A fraudster has been jailed for taking a Battle of Britain commemorative medal from a 102-year-old Dunkirk veteran and wiping him out of his life savings. Vincent Morgan, 45, offered to carry out gardening work for his neighbour Raymond Whitwell but took advantage of the trusting war hero to fleece him of more than £4,000.
Mr Whitwell, now 103, was part of the rearguard of the British Expeditionary Force as it retreated to Dunkirk in 1940. He eventually made it to the beaches, but too late to be evacuated and spent more than a week in occupied France before he was able to escape to Britain.
He returned to the continent after serving in North Africa and was part of the Battle of Arnhem in 1944 when he and his colleagues went for days without food. York Crown Court heard that Mr Whitwell, who lived alone, agreed to pay Morgan £10 an hour and after two hours’ work paid him £20.
The following day, Morgan returned and asked the centenarian if he would lend him £30 as he was “waiting for a cheque”. He promised to pay him the money straight back, saying he was honest and straightforward, prosecutor Marte Alnaes said.
The trusting war hero handed Morgan his bank card to withdraw the cash, believing his neighbour was a “trustworthy man”, the court heard. Morgan returned shortly afterwards showing him the £30 and said this was all he had taken, and left.
But between August and October 2020, Morgan visited Mr Whitwell on several occasions asking to borrow money, the court was told. Again, Mr Whitwell handed over his bank card so Morgan could withdraw more cash, completely unaware that his neighbour was taking out hundreds of pounds at a time.
Morgan stole £4,240 from the pensioner and squandered it on booze and gambling, it was heard. It was only when Mr Whitwell got his bank statement that he realised Morgan had been siphoning the cash from his account.
Mr Whitwell, with the help of neighbours, called police and Morgan was arrested. During a search of his home, police found a brown envelope addressed to Mr Whitwell, inside which was a medal commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.
The court heard Mr Whitwell never gave Morgan permission to take the medal and it had 'clearly been taken' from the veteran’s home. Ms Alnaes said Morgan had emptied Mr Whitwell’s bank account which contained his life savings.
One of Mr Whitwell’s neighbours said the war veteran had 'little family to visit him and enjoyed the company of others and somebody to talk to'. She said she was worried all along that Morgan would take advantage of him.
Morgan was charged with fraud, theft and handling stolen goods but initially denied the offences. Brazenly, he initially claimed Mr Whitwell given him permission to take his money and had entrusted him with the war medal.
However, he finally admitted all three matters shortly before a trial was due to be held and conceded that his initial claims were 'wholly bogus'. Robert Mochrie, mitigating, said Morgan was 'absolutely appalled and ashamed at taking advantage of an elderly war veteran'.
He told the court that Morgan had a lifelong drink problem and at the time of the offences was drinking two bottles of vodka a day. Morgan, from Malton, North Yorks., had 42 previous convictions for over 80 offences, many for theft and drink-related matters dating back to the mid-1990s.
Jailing him for 15 months, judge Stephen Ashurst branded his crimes 'disgraceful'. He said: “At the heart of your offending was a deception you played upon him that you would do gardening work.
“You were drinking heavily…and gambling and taking money out of his bank account, (sometimes) several hundred pounds at a time, and all that money was dissipated on alcohol and gambling. Mr Whitwell said how upsetting and distressing he found the whole event. He said he had never been a victim of crime before and hoped that in the years left to him, he never would be.
The court heard that since Morgan’s callous fraud, Mr Whitwell’s bank had agreed to reimburse the pensioner for his losses.
