Conman who has targeted the elderly for decades jailed again

Robert Markward was sentenced to nine years in jail

A serial conman who posed as a nurse, a handyman and an electrician to steal from and defraud elderly victims in their homes has been sentenced to nine years in prison.

Robert Markward tricked nine vulnerable people in Ayrshire between December 2022 and March 2023.

The 64-year-old was found guilty last month of 10 charges, including defrauding and stealing from people and assaulting a housing complex employee.

Judge Lady Ross KC said although the sums of money stolen were not great and totalled around £600, the seriousness of the crimes "cannot just be measured in pounds sterling."

She accused Markward of having "made a career out of crimes of dishonesty" and said he "specialised in preying on elderly people."

Past sentences provided no obvious deterrent for Markward re-offending, the judge said, and the author of the criminal justice social work report believed it was almost certain he would offend again when released in the future.

Speaking at the High Court in Glasgow, Lady Ross said some of the people Markward had stolen from were particularly vulnerable.

Reading a statement from the daughter of one victim, Lady Ross said the elderly woman had felt stupid and a little violated by the crime.

Lady Ross added: "She is a strong, sensible lady but this event has shaken her confidence in strangers."

She added that Markward had committed "nasty offences".

The court heard he posed as an electrician to gain access to an 88-year-old woman's retirement apartment in Ayr. He then stole her purse and bank card.

On another occasion he asked to use the toilet in a 94-year-old woman's home, having claimed to be a friend of the woman's recently deceased neighbour.

He then disappeared, and the woman realised her purse had been taken.

After the verdict the jury heard Markward had a string of previous convictions at the High Court for similar crimes dating back to 1996.

He has accumulated a total of 38 convictions involving 106 charges dating back to the 1980s.

Some of his most recent crimes occurred at a housing complex he previously targeted more than 20 years ago.

He was jailed for defrauding elderly people in 2002, when he was sentenced to four years in prison at the High Court in Glasgow.

But while on home leave being prepared for parole he struck again.

In 2005 he was jailed for six years, having posed as a priest and a hospice worker in Ayr and Prestwick to carry out crimes of dishonesty.

He was released early on licence but within days he resumed his offending in Ayrshire and Glasgow.

Markward was jailed in 2010 for seven years after stealing from several elderly victims. He told a 75-year-old woman he was a friend of her son's and persuaded her to give him Sunday lunch.

He then stole a purse containing £120, bank cards and bracelets belonging to her grandchildren.

Markward was released early again but was jailed for 10 years in 2016, after he targeted the elderly victims in Clydebank. He was released early in 2022.

In the latest trial, the serial thief insisted that he definitely did not commit crimes against elderly people.

A charge of stealing a purse in Prestwick on 27 March was not proven.

Adam Stachura, the policy director of charity Age Scotland, previously said Markward's crimes were "sickening".

He said: "I think the court has done a very important job in articulating how seriously they take offences of this kind, and hopefully it becomes a deterrent for people thinking of preying on the elderly.

"It's sickening to think of the number of people caught out by this guy."