Fraudster who scammed neighbour out of £40,000 before pretending to be in coma is jailed

A FRAUDSTER who scammed his neighbour out of more than £40,000 before pretending to be in a coma for two years has been jailed.

Alan Knight was jailed todayWALES NEWS SERVICE/PA

Alan Knight was jailed today for four-and-a-half years

Alan Knight, 47, allegedly tried to avoid justice by claiming he was a comatose quadraplegic - but was later rumbled after CCTV footage captured him walking around Tesco and driving his car to Dorset.

Knight, from Swansea, south Wales, had "systematically" drained £41,570 from the bank accounts of dementia sufferer Ivor Richards after the pensioner was taken into a care home, Swansea Crown Court heard.

It was later discovered that the 47-year-old had also forged Mr Richards' will - even using the names of two dead women from a newspaper's obituary section as counter-signatories.

The scam took place over a three-year period until he was eventually arrested in 2011.

After the plot was discovered, Knight, who was living off benefits, then claimed he had suffered a massive neck injury.

Alan Knight was jailed todayWALES NEWS SERVICE

Knight pretended he was in a coma

Alan Knight is as dishonest a man as I have ever come across

Judge Paul Thomas

Then when police tried "at least twice" to get him to court, he admitted himself to hospital while stating his injury had worsened.

Over the course of the investigation he also lied to police, claiming his estranged son had burgled Mr Richards' home which a subsequent investigation found was "without foundation".

He finally appeared in Swansea Crown Court on October 21, arriving in a wheelchair and wearing a neckbrace, where he admitted 19 counts of forgery, fraud and theft.

Knight, who refused to attend court today while on remand at Swansea Prison, was originally going to contest the fraud and theft charges against him.

However, he changed his plea after CCTV footage showed him "in high spirits as if he had won the lottery".

Judge Paul Thomas today passed sentence on the basis of the fraud and theft charges and sentenced Knight to four-and-a-half years in prison.

He said the aggravated feature of Knight allegedly trying to avoid court by faking illness would be the subject of a separate investigation.

In passing sentence, Judge Thomas branded jobless Knight as a dishonest man who would use every trick in the book to try and escape responsibility for his actions.

He said: "Alan Knight is as dishonest a man as I have ever come across.

"Over a period of two years he took a man in his 80s for every penny he could.

"He took advantage of that gentleman's declining mental health.

"First he pretended to befriend him and then using this trust he systematically stole money that amounted to more than £40,000 which that gentleman had worked hard to build up most of his working life.

"When these matters came to light he decided to do everything he could to avoid responsibility for his actions.

"He tried to blame his own son for what he had done - which resulted in him being arrested and accused his own son of being bribed by a police officer.

"It is clear that Alan Knight would stop at nothing in order to try and save his own skin."

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