Dating site love cheat faked romance with single mum to steal her Land Rover
A conman used a dating app to swindle a woman, stealing her car which had her daughter's wheelchair and boots which allowed her to stand.
Despicable Ben Robinson left his victim with a £20,000 bill after taking her leased Land Rover Discovery and flogging it while it still had the disabled girl's equipment inside, including boots and splints she needed due to her cerebral palsy. The love rat sold the £16,000 car to his criminal contacts, then tried to persuade her to falsely report it as stolen saying he'd gotten into an accident.
The 33-year-old crook from Bolton charmed the mum into a relationship, a court heard, asking to borrow the vehicle so that he could go out and buy his son a birthday present. But instead of returning it, he made fake excuses including that he was visiting his sick mum in hospital before wrongly claiming he had smashed it up in a hit and run crash.
In a text to the mother, Robinson claimed: "Babe. You need to ring the police and report your car as stolen. Say you just got home from your mum's house and found it gone. You'll have to say the keys were next to the front door door and the thieves must have taken them through the letterbox.
Heartless Robinson has been jailed (Cavendish Press (Manchester) Ltd)"I've just run someone over and there was a big chase and I've run off. I'm sh***ing myself and I don't know what the f**k I'm gong to do. There's police everywhere."
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The victim realised she had been hoodwinked after contacting the mother of Robinson's child about the car, only to find their relationship had been faked and her car was gone. Her daughter's wheelchair, which was leased by the NHS, was later returned but was missing a specially-made seat which had been moulded around her body, leaving it unusable.
The Land Rover, her boots which helped her stand up; and her splints were never recovered. At the time of the romance fraud, Robinson had already been under investigation over an unprovoked attack on a man in a pub beer garden, Bolton crown court heard, as well as having past convictions which included car theft and burglary.
In a heartbreaking statement, the mum described "feeling like an idiot" after learning of Robinson's sick con, saying the entire chain of events had left her £20,000 out of pocket. "I'm still paying for the inconvenience and hardship caused to my family a year on after what Robinson did,'' she said.
It transpired that her insurance would not cover the cost, for reasons unknown. The single mum, who is on Universal Credit, said she was now having to pay off the huge sum by direct debit every month whilst struggling with the care for her daughter.
His despicable crime has left a hard up mother of four with a £20,000 bill (Cavendish Press (Manchester) Ltd)"I only leant my car to Robinson as I was seeing him at the time and he told he told me he was insured to drive any car," she told the court. "But I've since learnt this was wrong and I made a mistake which I will never make again."
She added that her daughter was "unable to live the best quality of life she can" for several weeks after the car theft, and was also unable to go to physio appointments leaving her in further unnecessary pain.
She added: "When Robinson stole my car, he may have thought that was that for him - but for me there's such a much bigger picture and it has had a great effect on my family. I feel such an idiot for trusting someone like him so easily.
"It really has taught me a tough lesson. I'm upset for my daughter and how it has affected her and her mobility. I was embarrassed when I had to tell [my daughter's] school and consultant about it."
When quizzed by police Robinson claimed he had abandoned the Land Rover and disputed claims he had told the victim he was an HGV driver. In court he claimed to suffer from anxiety and depression and blamed his ills on his consumption of alcohol and cocaine.
Robinson was jailed for 27 months after he admitted theft, perverting the course of justice and assault. Judge Martin Walsh told Robinson his crime was a "breach of trust". Sentencing him, Judge Walsh said: "She trusted you but what you did had significant consequences for her - both financially and emotionally."
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