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.
