In a busy October for the county’s courts, here are four Hertfordshire criminals who have been convicted this month, including a serial scammer who defrauded a neighbour out of £118,000 in a Spanish property scheme.
1. Margarita Clark
Margarita Clark, was sentenced to 43 months behind bars at St Albans Crown Court after pleading guilty to fraud by false representation.
In 2018, the 72-year-old befriended a woman in her 70s, who had moved to the area after her husband passed away, with the pair regularly meeting for coffee and lunch.
Following a discussion about savings, Clark fabricated a story about purchasing property in Spain and offered the victim a chance to invest, in exchange for a cut of the interest.
Over the next two years, she continued to make up bogus property stories to acquire further cash from the victim, totalling around £118,000.
The money was then used to purchase high end clothing items and new car, with Clark even persuading the victim to pay for a lavish trip to Dubai.
In October 2020, a family member of the victim - who found out Clark had been jailed for 40 months in 2014 after conning friends out of £2.5 million - contacted the police to raise concerns about fraud taking place.
2. Elliot Wright
Elliot Wright was sentenced to 42 months imprisonment at St Albans Crown Court on October 16, after pleading guilty to inciting the sexual exploitation of a child, arranging the sexual exploitation of a child, and doing an act tending or intended to pervert the course of justice.
The 29-year-old also pleaded guilty to three counts of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child and paying for sexual services of a child in relation to the teenager he engaged with in 2023.
Wright was arrested in March 2024, when a vulnerable 17-year-old girl was reported missing after getting into a car with him.
He had been in contact with her for a number of weeks through social media, exchanging hundreds of messages, and visiting the road where she lived four times before they met.
He had asked for indecent pictures of her and had offered to buy her gifts including alcohol, cigarettes and clothes if she came to his house.
During an investigation, police discovered that Wright, who was a serving officer with Bedfordshire Police at the time, had been having online conversations with a 16-year-old girl the year before.
Wright solicited indecent images from the girl in return for money, and he offered to pay her if she agreed to work on the online platform, OnlyFans.
A search of his address uncovered a significant number of sexual images of girls who appeared to be under 18, while his internet search history showed several searches relating to sexual offending against children by police officers and disciplinary proceedings and potential defences to indecent image offences.
3. Gheorghe Hirtopeanu
Gheorghe Hirtopeanu, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to 14 months in prison at Cambridge Crown Court on October 2.
The 65-year-old pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving whilst unfit through drink, failing to stop, failing to provide specimen for analysis and driving a vehicle drawing a trailer on the offside lane of a motorway.
On June 27, several members of the public called the police to report a 44-tonne Scania lorry swerving across lanes on the A1(M) between Stevenage and St Neots.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary were alerted to the lorry, but Hirtopeanu failed to stop for officers, only being slowed down by a stinger device near Sawtry.
Hirtopeanu was discovered inside the cab and appeared to be drunk, but he refused to provide a breath sample when taken into custody.
His Honour, Judge Grey, described his driving as "outrageous" and said he was "extraordinarily drunk". He told the court Hirtopeanu was "an appalling risk to literally thousands of other road users".
4. Lynsey Melvin
A thief who stole bank cards and cash from a pensioner's home in Langford has been jailed.
Lindsey Melvin, of St Ives Road, Woodhurst, Cambridgeshire, admitted two charges of burglary, two counts of fraud by false representation and a charge of racially aggravated harassment at Luton Crown Court.
She was sentenced to three years and three months in prison for her crimes, including a theft committed in Bedfordshire.
On May 23, the 33-year-old managed to get inside the home of a vulnerable 79-year-old man in Langford, stealing cash and credit cards.
She used the cards to buy food and £40 worth of scratch cards in a nearby shop, before buying fast food in St Ives.
Three months earlier, on February 6, Melvin posed as a door-to-door seller and persuaded an 86-year-old man to allow her to enter his home in Haslemere, Surrey.
Once inside, she stole his wallet, containing cards and £400 in cash, and made her escape while the victim was distracted making a drink.
After the crimes were reported, officers from the Bedfordshire and Surrey worked together to identify Melvin, linking the crimes using CCTV and DNA evidence from the mug she used in the Surrey crime and a drink can in Bedfordshire.
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