Conman fleeced blind victim out of £185k

PIANO TUNER WAS BOMBARDED WITH CALLS, TEXTS AND EMAILS FOR YEARS

- PAUL BRITTON

A CONMAN fleeced a blind piano tuner out of £185,000 in a fraud that lasted for years.

Mark Stanner, 42, used a call centre company in Manchester as a front and bombarded the vulnerable victim with phone calls, text messages and e-mails, police said as he was locked up.

The man, who is aged in his 50s and has been blind since birth, was told by Stanner that he owed money to publications for piano-tuning adverts.

Greater Manchester Police said the demands started in 2017 and were for 'small' amounts at first, but 'progressively got more and more aggressive and frequent! The force said the victim, who hasn't been named, paid the initial demands, asking Stanner to leave him alone if he handed over the sums.