A fraudster has been sentenced for seeking to extort a bogus £2,000 ransom by falsely claiming the Keswick-based wife of his intended victim had been kidnapped.
Carlisle Crown Court heard that the couple were separated. On July 22 last year, the husband began receiving texts from an unknown number. These messages claimed his wife was in “great danger” having fallen into debt and that she had been kidnapped by people who were violent and would come to his house.
Despite being warned not to contact police, the man did just that.
It emerged that he had been the victim of a bizarre criminal plot by 31-year-old Kieran Allan Winder, who was desperately seeking to obtain money to buy drugs.
Winder had claimed to be a go-between in the pretend kidnap. He told the man that crooks were demanding £2,000, that he himself had paid off some of the money owed and that he now wanted reimbursement.
“Phone calls came every 20 minutes demanding payment,” prosecutor Andrew Evans said of Winder’s criminal contact with the man. “He was offered payments in instalments of £1,000 now and £1,000 later, and given the defendant’s bank details so he could pay off the amount that the defendant had allegedly paid the kidnappers.”
Initially the man had “no doubt” that the kidnapping was real, but later grew suspicious.
Winder, of Hunday Court, Workington, was quickly exposed as the culprit. The court heard he’d used his own first name and phone when contacting the man.
He later pleaded guilty to fraud by making a false representation. He also admitted two counts of assaulting emergency workers after spitting towards officers while in custody, and causing damage to a prison cell.
Winder was given a 49-week prison sentence by Recorder Julian Shaw, who spoke of a “curious offence clearly driven by a motivation to obtain money for drugs”.
Having been in custody on remand since his arrest last July, Winder was likely to be released imminently, the judge observed.
A man with 40 previous offences to his name, Winder was now hoping to turn his life around and had his sights set on gaining a football coaching badge having been offered a course while in prison which was linked to Championship side Sunderland.
A charge of fraud which was brought against — and denied by — the Keswick woman had been dropped by prosecutors, the court was told.
