Fraudster who previously stole £2.5m back in prison for scamming widow out of £118,000

Margarita Clark, 72, was sentenced to 43 months imprisonment for fraud aft she fabricated a communicative astir purchasing spot successful Spain and offered the unfortunate a accidental to invest

A conwoman who had antecedently been jailed for swindling £2.5m from her pals has recovered herself backmost down bars aft conning her erstwhile neighbour retired of a whopping £118k.

Margarita Clark, 72, spun a web of lies astir buying spot successful Spain and dangled the carrot of concern to the victim, promising a portion of the involvement successful return. Clark, hailing from Bayford, Hertfordshire, kept up the charade of phoney spot tales to extract much cash from the unsuspecting victim, racking up astir £118,000.

She splashed the ill-gotten gains connected high-end fashion, a marque caller centrifugal and adjacent managed to person the unfortunate to ft the measure for a plush travel to Dubai. The household of the unfortunate uncovered Clark's shady past with a elemental Google search, revealing that she had been sentenced to 40 months successful situation backmost successful 2014, aft fleecing friends of £2.5million.

In her erstwhile scams, Clark had tricked six victims into parting with their beingness savings nether the pretence of investing successful bogus spot deals, each portion eating successful posh restaurants and holidaying successful the Caribbean. Clark was handed a 43-month condemnation astatine St Albans Crown Court connected September 13, aft admitting to fraud by mendacious representation.

The fraud began successful 2018 erstwhile Clark struck up a relationship with a pistillate successful her 70s who had relocated to the country pursuing the decease of her husband. The 2 became accelerated friends, often gathering for java and lunch, and aft a chat astir savings, Clark projected the unfortunate put successful Spanish property.

Over the adjacent 2 years, Clark continued to fabricate much spot tales to compression much funds from the victim, nether the pretence of securing a chopped of the interest. In October 2020, authorities were alerted by a household subordinate who had looked up Clark online and suspected the unfortunate had fallen prey to a scam.

It was discovered that Clark had antecedently been jailed for 40 months successful 2014 for swindling implicit £2.5million from acquaintances implicit six years. The East Herts Local Crime Unit, aided by adept fraud investigators, launched a thorough and intricate probe.

As a result, Clark was charged successful September 2023, and the lawsuit made its mode done the judicial system. Detective Constable Emma Cozens, who spearheaded the investigation, stated: "Clark is simply a acold and calculating individual."

"She took vantage of her victim, who was grieving the nonaccomplishment of her hubby and had lone precocious moved to the area. The unfortunate genuinely believed she had made a adjacent person and was near shocked and heartbroken erstwhile the information was discovered."

"I'm pleased that Clark is present down bars. Discovering you've been a unfortunate of fraud tin person a devastating impact. Many radical are excessively disquieted oregon embarrassed to study what has happened to them. If you deliberation you whitethorn person been approached successful akin circumstances, delight bash interaction police. We instrumentality each reports earnestly and person specializer teams connected manus to help."