Scammer groomed elderly victims by pretending to be a police officer

Two separate victims were scammed out of their entire savings

State pension blunders are still being made, despite a huge correction exercise into past mistakes having been put in place, according to former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Archive)

A con artist who pretended to be a police officer to scam two elderly victims out of their life savings to buy £450,000 worth of gold bullion has been jailed.

Ashley Marlon Thompson, 26, called the victims claiming to be from the police and told them their accounts were compromised.

The victims - based in North Yorkshire - were advised to go to the bank, withdraw all their money in cash, and purchase gold bullion with the amount.

The two separate victims were then scammed out of their entire savings after the gold bars were collected by someone to for 'safekeeping'.

Thompson, of London, was arrested after being picked up by cops who struck gold after being tipped off that tried to sell one of the bars off to a pawnbroker.

He said in police interviews that he hired a lock-up storage facility where he found the gold bar in a bag of tools but had no idea who owned it.

He claimed that he'd waited to see if anyone claimed it but when no one did, so tried to pawn it for cash.

But investigation officers found that he forged documents to prove the lock-up facility existed, when in reality it did not.

Detective Constable Neil Brodhurst from North Yorkshire Police said the victims were 'devastated' by the scam.

He said: "They were groomed over a period of several months with their trust and good nature callously exploited to the extent that they lost their entire life savings to someone claiming to be a police officer.”