A VULNERABLE Craven Arms pensioner was tricked into paying out almost £55,000 in premiums for a bogus insurance policy, a court heard.

For a period of seven years, 86-year-old William Norgrove believed he was signed up to a genuine scheme with a Scandinavian company.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court this week the conman behind the scam was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Lamin Conteh, 43, had been due to face trial on a series of fraud allegations, but pleaded guilty to a single charge of fraud between January, 2008, and January last year.

Passing sentence, Judge Jim Tindal said Conteh had systematically and repeatedly abused the trust of the elderly and vulnerable victim.

The court heard that £54,970 had been taken in cash transfers to Conteh’s Nationwide bank account for the fictitious insurance payments.

In addition, Conteh had also used the victim’s bank card details to obtain around £3,500 worth of items on the Amazon website.

Raquel Simpson, prosecuting, said that Conteh had convinced the victim that he was paying into an insurance scheme based in Sweden that would pay out up to £178,000.

The court was told that Mr Norgrove had subsequently been forced to move out of his home and was now living in a Shropshire care home.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Norgrove said the theft had “taken away his self-respect” and broken his trust in human nature.

He said that no matter what sentence was passed it would not be good enough because he had lost everything.

The court heard that Conteh, a Swedish national, of Carroll Crescent, Coventry, had been using the money to feed an online gambling habit.