Sprout-picker convicted of fraud
A man who tricked his fiancee out of £73,500 by claiming he was a wealthy singer-songwriter for well-known boy bands has been convicted of fraud and theft.
Brian Simpson, 42, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, met widow Linda Pinnock, 44, at a singles club in Cambridgeshire.
A jury at Cambridge Crown Court unanimously found Simpson guilty of four charges after deliberating for just 90 minutes.
He had denied three charges of obtaining property by deception, and denied one count of stealing furniture from Mrs Pinnock's farmhouse.
The jury had heard during the trial that Simpson, a part-time Brussels sprout picker in the Fens had claimed that he wrote songs for Boyzone and Westlife, had met Madonna, and ran a successful music company.
By November 2001, when they had known each other for almost two years, they were living in a caravan after Mrs Pinnock sold her farmhouse in Haddenham, Cambridgeshire. The caravan was on the land of a house she had bought in Nottinghamshire.
The court heard that Simpson had told Mrs Pinnock that he avoided having a high profile because he did not want any publicity.
Their relationship ended early last year.
The court heard Mrs Pinnock had withdrawn £33,000 and £40,000 in two separate amounts which she lent to Simpson. But Simpson had claimed that she cleared her account out because she did not want any involvement in her late husband's business.
Simpson agreed with a prosecution comment that she lied about what he had told her because she was a jilted lover.
Story filed: 14:08 Friday 21st March 2003 |
