Jail for conman who fleeced 85-year-old friend out of £½m

A judge told Alexander Walker yesterday his treatment of Alistair Robin, 85, was "despicable" and had left the retired accountant in straitened circumstances, unable to provide fully for his children on his death.

Walker fleeced Mr Robin, a family friend, by pretending he needed to fund a court action for compensation for an industrial illness, but enjoyed a lifestyle including a QE2 cruise and months in the Canaries.

Lord Matthews was told Walker, 54, of Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow, had paranoid schizophrenia. But the judge said: "You were not insane and the extent to which your undoubted mental illness contributed to these matters is not at all clear.

"You have pleaded guilty to a despicable offence. Over a period of almost ten years, you preyed on the good nature of a man whose only interest was in helping you because your aunt was a former colleague. You defrauded him of the sum of 480,000."

Lord Matthews added: "He had worked hard and provided for his retirement but is now living in what I am told are relatively straitened circumstances in a retirement home.

"He has also been deprived of the opportunity of leaving his four children well provided for after his death. You squandered the money and appear to some extent to have been enjoying, at his expense, the lifestyle to which he was entitled.

"You have now expressed remorse but it has a hollow ring. You had ample opportunity over the lengthy period of this fraud to demonstrate your remorse by stopping what you were doing."

Walker admitted obtaining 480,000 by fraud between 1993 and 2002. The judge said it was only his guilty plea which spared from an eight-year prison term.

Mr Robin, of Newton Mearns, was persuaded that Walker was suing the Scottish Office over unpaid benefits, and tricked into handing over large sums of cash, allegedly for legal fees.

The men met regularly at Glasgow's Central Station and Mr Robin handed over thousands of pounds in notes, and was given a receipt. Eventually, he began to have concerns and the fraud was uncovered. He has not been repaid a penny, and has lost all the money invested for his old age.

Defence counsel Edgar Prais, QC, said Walker had been hearing voices for more than 20 years due to his mental ill-health.

Mr Prais said it had been suggested Walker went on a Caribbean cruise on the QE2 using Mr Robin's money, but he insisted the trip had been paid for by a former partner.

"Mr Robin was clearly gullible, but as kind and generous as can be," added Mr Prais.

"The accused is particularly remorseful because he acknowledges the victim is a wonderful man."