Conman who took £430k from cancer patient jailed

Terry McGinlay stole £432,500 from a man who died earlier this year

A conman who stole £430,000 from an elderly cancer patient with dementia has been jailed.

Terry McGinlay, 44, conned farmer David Wilson, who died earlier this year, out of his savings between 2019 and 2022 and spent it on drugs, alcohol, gambling and designer clothing.

Mr Wilson's friend told Carlisle Crown Court "it was very cruel to watch a man who would do no harm to anybody agonise over losing so much money to a fraud".

McGinlay was jailed for six years and six months.

The court heard how McGinlay first got down on his knees and begged Mr Wilson, who was a farmer from north Cumbria, for £5,000 in 2019.

From March 2019 and October 2022, Mr Wilson was conned into handing 11 separate cheques over to McGinlay, who stole a total of £432,500.

McGinlay made up a lie that he would repay money from a house sale in Ireland to Mr Wilson, the court heard.

The court also heard how Mr Wilson had waited by the phone in hopes McGinlay would contact him and pay back the money.

'Deeply sorry'

Police were alerted by a firm of accountants who grew suspicious of Mr Wilson's reluctance to provide details of his finances.

A friend of Mr Wilson told the court how at the time of the crimes, the cancer patient was living alone and that he used a zimmer frame.

McGinlay was sentenced for two offences of fraud after initially denying both of them.

The second crime related to a couple who were scammed by McGinlay as he took £1,200 for work he promised to carry out on their driveway in June 2022.

The court heard how McGinlay taunted the couple when they approached him after no work was done, and said: "Take me to court. I will wink at you."

In a statement, the couple described being left with a hole in their savings.

McGinlay, who used to live in Carlisle but moved to Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, was said to have had issues with alcohol and gambling at the time and said he was "deeply sorry".

Jailing McGinlay, Judge Michael Fanning noted he had also bought jewellery with his ill-gotten gains.

"No doubt a significant quantity [of the cash] on drugs, alcohol and gambling," he said.