A bogus Amazon worker preyed on a 90-year-old Crieff woman and tricked her into paying cash for a neighbour’s parcel.
Pensioner Rhona Gibson said she felt “foolish” to have been duped but said she never uses the online retail giant and was unaware that all costs are paid upfront.
Swindler Tomasz Lacki, 38, was found guilty of defrauding Mrs Gibson and 67-year-old Simon Barnes when he appeared at their homes, pretending to be a delivery driver in April, last year.
In 2019, the former care worker was jailed for eight months for stealing from pensioners aged between 74 and 91 at various addresses in Crieff.
‘The neighbourly thing to do’
Mrs Gibson told a trial at Perth Sheriff Court that she had been at her home in Strathearn Court “doing general chores” when Lacki rang her bell.
“He told me that he had to deliver a parcel to one of the neighbours.
“I looked and saw my neighbour’s name was on the parcel.
“He said there was £10 to pay on it.
“I understood that it was an underpayment on the postage or the goods, he didn’t say precisely.”
She said: “He was quite pleasant looking. He was not aggressive in anyway.”
Mrs Gibson handed over £10 but said she felt “foolish” afterwards.
“I thought it was the neighbourly thing to do.
“He said he couldn’t take the parcel back to Dundee and he didn’t know what to do with it.
“He was in a quandary.
“I don’t use any of these internet services and I didn’t realise that you always have to pay money up front.”
Mrs Gibson said the delivery man appeared to have an eastern European accent.
When asked by solicitor David Holmes if it was Lacki who came to her door, she said she was “95% certain”.
Needed money to ‘heat his flat’
Mrs Gibson said her neighbour Grace Wilson later told her the same man had been at her door earlier that afternoon.
Mrs Wilson, 91, told the trial she was first visited by Lacki in January 2021.
“I had never seen him before.
“It was a dark, wintery afternoon and he had on an anorak, with his hood up.
“I thought that he had a Polish accent.”
She said: “He asked for money to feed his family so I gave him a £5 note.”
The court heard he returned in April and asked for money to “heat his flat”.
Mrs Wilson told him ‘no’ and closed the door.
“I felt slightly sorry for him and I was thinking about giving him money but my family had told me not to.”
She later told police that she saw him outside, carrying a parcel and walking towards Mrs Gibson’s house.
Duty charge
The trial heard from self-employed Mr Barnes who was approached by Lacki at his workshop in his Crieff home.
Mr Barnes said he was making bespoke fishing rods, when Lacki appeared with a parcel.
“He said that he worked for Amazon, and was attempting to deliver to my neighbour.
“But he said there was a duty of £10 to be paid for the package before it could be delivered.
“At the time, I just assumed this was correct. It wasn’t unusual.”
Mr Barnes handed over the cash and later passed on the parcel to his neighbour.
“My neighbour called Amazon who told him he wasn’t supposed to pay any duty and they refunded him immediately,” he said.
Mr Barnes identified Lacki, of Murrayfield Loan, Crieff, as the “Amazon” delivery worker.
Previous offending
Sheriff Francis Gill found Lacki guilty of two charges of fraud.
He said that the witnesses were credible and reliable.
Sentence was deferred to August 24 for background reports.
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