Crown appeals sentence given to serial conman who tricked elderly victims
COPFSThe Crown Office has appealed the jail sentence given to a serial conman who posed as a nurse, a handyman and an electrician to steal from elderly victims in their homes.
Robert Markward was jailed for nine years last August, after a spate of offences in Ayrshire between December 2022 and March 2023.
A hearing on Friday will now determine whether prosecutors succeed in getting the sentence lengthened.
Markward was found guilty of 10 charges, including defrauding and stealing from people and assaulting a housing complex employee. After the verdict, the jury heard he had a string of previous convictions for similar crimes dating back decades.
At the time, 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 said Markward had made a career out of dishonesty, and had specialised in targeting elderly people.
Lady Ross added that some of the people Markward had stolen from were particularly vulnerable.
His crimes included pretending to be an electrician to gain access to an 88-year-old woman's retirement apartment in Ayr, before stealing 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, before stealing her purse.
