Financial adviser in £150,000 scam

Ryan Burnside, 35, pretended to mental health officer Margaret Gallivan that he was investing her life savings overseas, when in fact he was spending it at casinos.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard that Burnside, 35, created a “Walter Mitty” fantasy life to entice Mrs Gallivan, 62, to trust him with her wealth.

He lied about having large plots of land, fancy cars, and even invented a fictitious wife and children.

And he did not tell her the truth about his employment status – that he had been dismissed from his firm for “financial irregularities”.

Mrs Gallivan will now have to work past her planned retirement date. She no longer has any savings, and has had to take in a lodger.

Fiona Caldwell, prosecuting, said Burnside had worked as a senior financial adviser at investment firm Albannach, now known as Towergate Financial Services.

But on 12 November, 2008 he was dismissed from his post and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) was informed.

Miss Caldwell said he should not have set up as a financial adviser himself, or offered investment advice.

The court heard that Mrs Gallivan had received a six-figure divorce settlement after the sale of her marital home.

She had been allocated Burnside as her financial adviser, and had been with him for six weeks before Albannach told her she had been allocated another adviser because he had been dismissed.

But she contacted him to say she did not want another adviser, as she had already had many since joining the firm.

Burnside lied to her that the FSA were allowing him to work again, and then began looking after her investments and financial documents.

Miss Caldwell said: “In the following months he told her some of her investments were not doing well. He advised her he was investing in a Lithuanian bank.

“The accused began transferring money into his account, and the reason he gave for this was that this was going overseas, so her money would be more profitable in this account.”

Mrs Gallivan’s son Tom, 37, became concerned about where the money was going, and found out that Burnside should not have been working. He helped snare Burnside by setting up a bogus meeting, and contacted police following the meeting.

Burnside, of Nettlehill Road, Uphall Station, West Lothian, admitted that from 12 November, 2008 at Mrs Gallivan’s home in Henderson Street, Bridge of Allan, he pretended he was an Independent Financial Adviser.

He admitted that he pretended to her that he was self- employed and that he would make investments on her behalf, and that he induced her to provide him with £150,000 for investment, and that he obtained £150,000 by fraud.

Sheriff William Gilchrist deferred sentence for reports.

Outside court Mrs Gallivan said: “He used me as a cash machine. I feel quite foolish now that I fell for it all. He told me lie after lie.”